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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



Hints AND HELPS 



Inquiry ROOM 



FRANK HAVEN HINMAN 



I'i'K.t:. r\\'i-;NT> : : > i > 



HINTS AND HELPS 



FOR THE 



INQUIRY ROOM 



BY 



FRANK HAVEN HINMAN 

* 

PASTOR CALVARY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
AUBURN, N. Y. 




A HAND BOOK FOR CHRISTIAN WORKERS, DESIGNED TO AID IN OB- 
TAINING A KNOWLEDGE, THROUGH THE WORD, OF SUCH 
PARTS OF THEOLOGV AS ARE IMMEDIATELY ESSEN- 
TIAL IN POINTING OUT THE WAY OF LIFE, 
AND TO TEACH HOW TO 
APPLY THEM. 



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COPYRIGHTED BY 
FRANK HAVEN HINMAN. 

1887. 



Printed by J, w. BURROUGHS, 
AUBURN, N. Y. 



INTRODUCTIOIS^ 



Actuated by a desire long ago formed, heated into 
fruitage by strong articles in the New York Indepen- 
dent, last fall I called a meeting in my study of all 
those who would willingly consecrate themselves to 
the study of His Word, with special reference to deal- 
ing with inquiring souls. I had expected to see from 
five to ten, but God was better to me than my faith, 
and twenty- six earnest Christians assembled to conse- 
crate themselves to greater usefulness through pre- 
pared channels. The first evening was occupied in 
self-examination with reference to spiritual life and 
knowledge of the Bible. At the close of the hoar's 
conference we all knelt and many short prayers were 
offered for Grod" s blessing. The next week my study 
proved too small and we went into the parsonage par- 
lors, where we continued to meet one hour each Tues- 
day evening for seven weeks, until God stopped us for 
a still greater work. The line of study pursued was 
quite similar to that in the following pages. 

Immediately in harmony with the above action I in- 
stituted an inquiry meeting after every Thursday and 
Sabbath evening service. At once souls began to be 
saved, and in a short time we were compelled to give 
up our inquiry study and care for the souls God gave 
us. Our prayer-meetings became too large for the 
lecture-room and for four months were transferred to 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

the auditory of the church. The auditory became too 
small for the audiences which assembled at the preach- 
ing services, and the lecture-room was opened in con- 
nection with it. At the inquiry services many times, 
above three hundred would remain and as many as 
forty would request i3rayers. It soon became neces- 
sary, because of our lack of room and the number of 
unsaved and Christians who would remain, to dismiss 
the inquiry service after listening to many testimonies, 
and hold another service, as informal as possible, for 
the benefit of the inquirers. Upward of four hundred 
requested prayers during the winter, many of whom 
gave abundant evidence of conversion. 

At the conclusion of the special services I convened 
the Bible Inquiry Class in the lecture-room of the 
church for the purpose of continuing the special study 
of the Word, and for the instruction of the newly 
saved. I was extremely gratified to find at the first 
meeting about one hundred and fifty present. We 
continued the studies until the middle of May, when 
we numbered over two hundred. We then adjourned 
to meet again the second Tuesday of October. 

In previous work of a revival character I have felt 
the need of a band of workers, learned in the Word, 
to supplement the preaching of the truth. Upon such 
a band rest the eternal destinies of immortal souls. 
ISTo pastor or evangelist can instruct personally all 
those who would seek the way of life, especially in 
times of refreshing. Such instruction is absolutely 
essential. Who shall do it ? In every pastor' s con- 
gregation, be it large or small, there are those who can 
and would do it if they but knew the way. And not 
only is this essential for the sake of the inquirer, but 
for the inquiry worker as well. Many members of our 
churches have never made any progress in the christian 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

course because they have had nothing to do. But once 
get them thoroughly awakened, not only to the neces- 
sity and opportuniiy, but also to the Heavenly pleasure 
of leading souls into the light of Christ and peace with 
the eternal laws of God, and your church is no longer 
dead. It is alive ! Quickened into holy zeal by the 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and by work accom- 
plished, until your membership is one moving magnet, 
a tremendous poAver in drawing all people unto ' ' the 
mountain of the Lord's house." Such work accom- 
plished, brings forth insx3iration for more work as 
nothing else can do. 

This brings before us the benefits of and demands for, 
a Bible Inquiry Class in every church, until, in place 
of the weary feet of one minister of the Gospel, him- 
self burdened with the cares and sins of the masses, 
there shall be scores to carry the light of Heaven into 
the darkness of the night of sin, and to cause the hearts 
of men and of angels and of God to leap for joy. 

The above are some of the reasons for this book. It 
is published to meet the demands of my own Inquiry 
Class. I am indebted to every source from which I 
could possibly gain information, for the subject matter. 
It is simply an outline from which each lecture is 
given. 

That souls are dying, while there are Christians 
enough in our churches to save them, is the apology for 
its publication. 

Can there not be organized in every church a train- 
ing class for Christian workers '( 

Frank Haven Hinman. 
Auburn, IST. Y. 

October 1st, 1887. 



Hip AND HELPS FOR THE INQUIRY pM. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE BOOK. 

The first thing essential for the Christian worker is 
a Bible. Let it be a good one for at least two reasons. 
One, its lasting qualities. Your Bible should grow 
more and more valuable with age, because of added 
notes and marked passages. Then the longer you have 
it the more readily you can lind passages. Another 
reason is, the more valuable the book the more likely 
you are to study and carry it. I remember, together 
with a class-mate, presenting to the Rev. Mr. Tamura 
of Tokio, Japan, one of the most beautiful Bagster 
Bibles I have ever seen. Mr. Tamura was then a stu- 
dent in the Auburn Theological Seminary. The eifect 
on him was remarkable. He read scarcely anything 
but that Bible for weeks, and in a short space of time 
he learned more Scripture than he had ever known be- 
fore. It was the same Book but it came to him with 
new force, dressed in substantial binding and gilt 
edges. I have seen a similar effect a score of times. 
Through the beauty of the cover and the glitter of the 
gilt there may come, in time, the flashes of divine 



8 HINTS AND HELPS 

truth, until the mechanical finish will be lost in the 
splendor of the better revelation. Do not get a Bible 
too good to be used. Procure a Teacher's Bible if 
possible ; that with Cruden' s or Youngs Concord- 
ance and Smith' s Bible Dictionary, is sufficient for all 
practical purposes. Know your Bible so well that 
you can find books, chapters and verses readily. You 
will lose much of your influence with the inquirer if 
you look for The Epistle to the Romans in the Old Tes- 
tament, or, for the book of Isaiah in the New ; or if you 
spend a long time in finding passages with which you 
should be familiar. Carry your Bible with you. Make 
it your companion, your friend. Do not be afraid to 
mark it. When a verse stimulates some helpful thought 
put that thought on the margin for reference. When 
some one presents a useful hint on some passage, mark 
that in some way over against the passage. I have in 
my Bible on the margin against the verse, "Yea, 
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
death, I willtfear no evil," the name of Hall, and in 
the verse I have underscored the word "shadow". 
This reminds me of a little incident once related to me 
by George A. Hall, of a certain person exclaiming as 
he read this verse, ' ' Who is afraid of a shadow 1 ' ' 
As I read the twenty-third Psalm this incident always 
comes back to me because of the name in the margin 
and the marked word, until now the shadow of the 
valley seems but a kindly veil, some day to lift and 
show me the Master' s face. 

If you do not become at once as interested in the 
study of the Word as you ought, take your Bible into 
your closet (this you ought to do daily), and kneeling 
down ask the Father to throw His light upon it and 
make you love it. After His resurrection it is written 
that Christ opened the understanding of the disciples 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 

that tliey niiglit understand the Scriptures. So He 
will open your understanding if you ask Him, and 
then you must soon love His Word. I remem- 
ber once telling my congregation to take the BiV)le 
and ask Grod to show them its beauty. At the next 
prayer-meeting a grand christian brother arose, and 
ox)ening his Bible, exclaimed, with a heavenly smile 
on his countenance, " It is true ! It is true ! God has 
shown me His Word as I have never seen it before." 
And then followed an exposition of a portion of the 
Sermon on the Mount which I shall never forget. Try 
it ! God will make you love it. 

This Bible is to be your text-book and your weapon. 
It is " the SAvord of the Sj)irit. " It is " quick and 
powerful, sharper than any tw^o-edged sword." The 
inquirer may not listen to your words but he must to 
it. If he does not listen to it, he will not to you. You 
can not bring him to Christ by your own arguments or 
devices. ' ' If they hear not Moses and the proi)hets, 
neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from 
the dead." ''The seed is the Word." 

Study the Word. There are many Bible readers ; 
there are few Bible students. Study the Word. Do 
not try to read so many chapters each day. There are 
many whose greatest ambition seems to be to read the 
Bible through each year. That is not the proper mo- 
tive for reading the Word of God. What has He said 
to me , should be the question. Study to find out 
what the Bible has for you personally, and then tell 
others the story. It may be you will have to study 
one section of Scripture for a week, or even w^eeks. I 
once heard Mr. Moody say that he had been studying 
the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah for five days and he did 
not know but he should for five weeks yet. Study the 
Word, Study it by books ! Study it by chapters ! 



10 HINTS AND HELPS 

Study it by sections ! Study it by themes ! Study it 
on your knees ! Memorize it ! Then God' s thoughts 
will come to you " as a cloud and as the doves to their 
windows," and the burning energy of the Spirit will 
force from you a Pentecostal sermon to the salvation 
of precious souls. 

Read and mark what the Bible has to say concern- 
ing : 

Its study, — Deut. 6 ; Joshua 1:8 ; John 5:39. 

The Spirit's help,— John 14:26 ; Luke 24:45. 

Its advantages : 

Wisdom,— Ps. 119:98-100. 

Cleansing, — Ps. 119:9 ; John 15:3. 

Power, — Eccl. 8:4; Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12. 

Blessings, — Deut. 6:3; Joshua 1:8. 

Penalty for not heeding it, — Prov. 13:13 ; Is. 5:24. 

Teaching it, — Luke 8:11 ; Ez. 3:4. 

Results,— Is. 55,10-13; II Chron. 17:9, 10. 

' ' Is not my word like as a lire % saith the Lord ; and 
like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" — 
Jer. 23:29. 

Revival of Bible study, — Under Jehoshaphat, II 
Chron. 17 : under JN'ehemiah, Neh. 8 : under Christ, 
Luke 24. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 11 



CHAPTER II. 

SALVATION. WHAT IS IT ? 

In studying together some of the very essential doc- 
trines of the Word, we will not look so much at the 
stereotyped definitions of systematized theology, as 
at what the Word itself says on these subjects. ]N"ot 
that those definitions are not accurate and definite, 
and the very best that might be formulated, but in 
conversation Avith the inquirer your influence over him 
will be far greater, if in answer to his question you 
can point at once to those Scripture references which 
will sharply and definitely answer him. Always keep 
these thoughts before you. It is not what you say 
but what God says which is to influence the inquirer. 
God alone is responsible for what He has given in His 
Word. What He has written. He has written, and He 
asks no apology for it from you or me. If the inquir- 
er does not listen to Him through His Word he will 
not listen to you. I do not mean that you are not to 
open that Word by exx3lanation or illustration, but 
the Word is of primary importance to him who would 
know the way of life. ''Go and speak with my words 
unto them." 

What is meant by being saved and how are we to be 
saved ? 

I. What is the condition of the unsaved man be- 
fore God? Turn to Rom. 3:23, "For all have sinned 



12 HINTS AND HELPS 

and come short of the glory of God." Here we find 
that man's condition before God is that of a sinner, 
that all have sinned, and that because of those sins he 
has come short of the glory of God. Turn to Rom. 5: 
12, ''Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the 
world and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all 
men, for that all have sinned." Here we find the same 
thing stated with the additional thought that to come 
short of the glory of God means death. One word of 
caution right here. Many times the question comes 
up in this connection, how can it be, and why is it, 
that all sinned in Adam '^ There is no need for you to 
enter into this discussion with an inquirer ; indeed it 
would be injurious for you to do so. Not that it is not 
true, but as soon as you enter into such discussions 
you take the attention of the inquirer from himself, 
and you are lost in speculations without profit. Tell 
him the question for him to settle, is not whether we 
all sinned in or through Adam ; or whether the heathen 
who never heard of the Word of God are sinners and 
responsible ; but, am I a sinner ^ Such questions as 
the above are continually coming up. Bring the at- 
tention of the inquirer right back to himself, then 
show him God' s Word for his condition before Him. 
I have never found a person yet who would not admit 
freely that he was a sinner. 

We have seen that we are sinners and that conse- 
quently we have come short of the glory of God ; also 
that because we have sinned, death has passed upon all 
men. Let us look a little further at the penalty at- 
tached to this transgression of God's law. At Rom. 
6:23 we read, "For the wages of sin is death;" at Matt. 
25:46, "And these shall go away into everlasting imn- 
ishment ; " (also at John 5:29,) at Jer. 17:9, "The heart 
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 18 

Summary of the testimony we have received : 

We are all sinners. Our hearts are deceitful and 
desperately wicked. 

We hav^e come short of the glory of God. 

We have all become guilty before God. 

Death has passed upon all men. 

This death is the wages of sin. 

This death is everlasting. 

The passages of Scripture I have given can be great- 
ly multiplied ; these simply indicate the line of Script- 
ure statement for the condition of the sinner before 
God. It is better, however, to have a few pertinent 
passages, well known, than many forgotten. 

There are two facts brought out in the above texts 
concerning man in his unsaved condition, which run 
all through our study concerning salvation, and of 
which we must not lose sight. 

1. Man is guilty before God. 

2. His heart is impure. 
Therefore he is lost. 

II. What is essential for salvation ? 

1. That this guilt should be removed. 

2. That this impurity should be cleansed. Hab. 
1:13; Matt. 5:8; Heb. 12:14; Rev. 21: 27. 

Whatever will accomplish these two things will save 
the lost man. 

III. Man can not save himself. Eph. 2:8, 9. 

1. He can not remove his guilt. Rom. 3:20. 

2. He can not cleanse his heart. Pro v. 20:9. 

We are all then guilty before God, impure of heart, 
and therefore subject to a death that never dies, and 
we are helpless. 



14 HINTS AKD HELPS 

ly. How then is salvation possible ? 

Turn to Acts 16:30, 31, where this question is asked 
and answered. The keeper of the prison was convinced 
that he was a sinner, — he wanted to be saved. The 
question burst from his lips, ''What must I do?" 
Notice carefully the answer of Paul and Silas, ' ' Be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, 
and thy house." Not do, but believe. It did not take 
the keeper long to accept that simple condition, and 
he "was baptized, he and all his, straightway." Man's 
question has always been, "What must I do ? " God's 
.answer to rfian is, "Believe." Turn to Eph. 2:8, 9, 
' ' For by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that 
not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : not of works, 
lest any man should boast." Here it is made most 
emphatic that salvation is not of man, neither by works, 
but, ' ' by grace, through faith. ' ' Through the door of 
believing on Christ you are to enter the kingdom of 
Heaven. This is the way of escape. 

y. What are we to gain by this salvation ? 

What is it to be saved? Rom. 8:1, "There is there- 
fore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ 
Jesus. ' ' Without Christ we found all the world guilty 
before Him ; in Christ "no condemnation." Rom. 5:9, 
' ' Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we 
shall be saved from wrath through him." Rom. 5:1, 
' 'Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 8:14, 15, 
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they 
are the sons of God. For ye have not received the 
spirit of bondage again to fear ; but ye have received 
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." 
John 5:24, " He that heareth my word, and belie veth 
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life (not will 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 16 

have), and shall not come into condemnation ; but is 
passed (not will pass) from death unto life. ' ' John 5:29, 
''and shall come forth ; they that have done good, un- 
to the resurrection of life." Matt. 25:46, "But the 
righteous (shall go away) into life eternal." John 17: 
22, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given 
them." II Cor. 3:18, " But we all, with open face be- 
holding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed 
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by 
the Spirit of the Lord." 

Summary of testimony concerning salvation. 

Saved by grace, through faith, by 

Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, 

And have received through salvation : 

In place of guilt, no condemnation ; 

In place wrath, forgiveness ; 

Peace with God ; 

Adoption into the family of God ; 

Everlasting life ; 

And are changed into the image of the Christ, in 
which we are to enjoy His glory. 



16 HINTS AND HELPS 



CHAPTER III. 



FAITH. 



In the statements of Scripture concerning how we 
are to be saved, the words "believe" and "faith" oc- 
cur. Inasmuch as on tliis element of faith rest our 
eternal destinies, let us examine it very closely. 

Turn to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews and notice 
what a mighty lever faith has been in the hands of 
Grod' s people. Your salvation and your work for the 
Master will be wrought through the same channel. 
"By grace are ye saved through faith.^^ ""Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "He 
that helieveth on the Son hath everlasting life : and he 
that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the 
wrath of Grod abideth on him." This faith spoken of 
is not a simple mental assent that Christ is the Son of 
Grod ; or that the Bible is true ; or that the Gospel 
scheme of salvation is the true one. There are thou- 
sands that believe that the Bible is the book of Grod ; 
that Jesus is the Son of God ; that the Scriptures 
reveal man's true condition before God, and the projjer 
way of escape ; yet they are out of ' ' the ark of safety;' ' 
they are going down the way to death, and the dark- 
ness of their future life will be all the more intense in- 
asmuch as they knew their duty and did it not. Jas. 
2:19, "The devils also believe and tremble." But the 
faith that saves souls goes beyond simple assent to the 
truth. It has a moving power. J may believe that 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 17 

that car on the Central-Hudson can carry me to New 
York, but if I never board the train it ivill not carry 
me. Faitli goes beyond this. You desire to go to New 
York ; you believe that car can carry you ; you trust 
yourself to it ; you reach your destination. You be- 
lieve the Lord Jesus Christ came to save you ; you be- 
lieve He can save you ; you trust Him to save you ; He 
does save you. All this is in that element of faith 
mentioned in Eph. 2:8, — ''By grace are ye saved 
through faith." Analyzing this you have the mental 
assent to the mission of Jesus, the Christ, and to His 
ability to save ; you have that trust which leads 
you to put your case into His hands ; you reach those 
results which only faith put into operation can secure. 
Change the illustration. You are very sick, and in 
danger of death ; you are told of a physician who has 
healed some friend of the same disease; as the facts are 
related to you you admit their truthfulness. You be- 
lieve he can save you ; you determine to trust him ; you 
send a prayer to him to come and take your case and 
attempt a cure ; he comes ; you trust yourself to him — 
you can not cure yourself — he cures you. Now trans- 
pose the case from the physical to the sj)iritual realm, 
and you need make no other change. Your soul is 
sick unto death ; you read in the Word, ' ' Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." A 
friend tells you he has been sick of soul unto death, 
and that he gave his case over to the Lord Jesus Christ 
and He saved him according to the promise ; you be- 
lieve the facts related ; you also determine to trust 
Him ; you send a prayer to Him to come and take your 
case; He comes ; you trust Him — you can not save your- 
self — He saves you. In just so far as faith is essen- 
tial to your salvation in the one case, in just so far is 
it necessary i/a the other. H* you can understand what 



18 IflNTS AND ILELl^S 

it means to have faith in an earthly physician to the 
salvation of yonr body, and if you can exercise that 
faith in an earthly physician, you can understand 
what it is to have faith in a heavenly physician and 
you can exercise that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Remember that as no mental assent to the ability of 
an earthly physician will save you in your physical 
sickness, unless you trust yourself to that physician, 
no more will a mental assent in the ability of the Lord 
Jesus Christ to save your soul from death, save you, 
unless you trust yourself to Him. 

In the analysis of the above illustration, not only the 
element of trust in the sense of confidence, but also in 
the sense of yielding, enters into it. For the time your 
will is given over to your physician, you yield your- 
self wholly to him ; so you must yield yourself to the 
Lord Jesus Christ ; jour will must become His. 

Now notice the process and elements of faith that 
bring salvation : 

1. Mental assent to Christ's ability to save. 

2. Asking Him to save you. 

3. Trusting Him to save you. 

4. Yielding yourself fully to Him. 

5. Being saved, as the result of the exercise of faith. 
All of this enters into the faith that saves. 

And now, lest the above analysis may discourage 
some honest ske|)tic, let us change the illustration a 
little. You are sick unto death ; you have no confi- 
dence in the power of any physician to heal you, only a 
faint hope ; you decide to try his skill ; you send for 
him ; you yield yourself to him ; he cures you : com- 
plete faith in him is the result. You have stripped 
your faith of the element of assent to the ability of the 
physician ; you exercised a faint hope in its stead. 
Christ said, "Believe me for the very works' sake." 



FOR THE l^QUlUi KOOM. 19 

Practical demonstration has proven that Christ saves 
those who believe in Him "for the works' sake." 

I once approached an infidel concerning his soul's 
salvation. He was in a desperate strait, being, as he 
and I also thought, on the verge of delirium tremens. 
He said he did not believe in Jesus Christ. He did not 
even know as there was a God. Knowing something 
of him and how he had been educated at home, I felt 
that he was honest, and so I told him that the Master 
had not sent me to demonstrate to him the existence 
of a Grod, or the trustworthiness of the Scripture, or 
the reality of a future life, or even His own divinity ; 
but He had sent me as His ambassador to him as a lost 
sinner ; that all He asked of him was to ' ' come and 
taste, ' ' that he might see that the Lord was good. He 
replied that he was lost anyway, and nothing could 
save him unless there was something in religion. We 
knelt on the side- walk, in the middle of the night. I 
remember his prayer, — "O Heaven, if there be a Heav- 
en, O God, if there be a God, can you save me '( I am 
lost ! lost ! O Heaven save me ! O >God, if you did 
make those stars you can save me." Over and 
over again he made his appeal to that God who never 
forsakes a helple&s child. He arose from his knees a 
saved and changed man. He knew nothing as to 
Christ's ability, yet, with a hope bordering upon 
despair, he trusted, he came, he yielded, he was saved. 
One of the wonders of such a salvation is that in his 
case, as in every such case, infidelity vanishes with 
conversion, and a full-orbed faith is the result. 

' ' But how can I yield myself to Jesus, the Christ, 
whom I have never seen T ' Can you yield yourself to 
truth and righteousness ? At Rom. 6:16 you read, 
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves ser- 
vants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey ; 



20 HINTS AND HELPS 

whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto right- 
eousness?" You have yielded yourself to sin long 
enough, now yield yourself to righteousness. Kneel 
down and ask the Father to aid you. Tell Him you 
have yielded yourself at last to His truth. Ask Him 
to put the new heart within you, that you may desire 
to do His will : soon the light of His presence will 
dawn upon your soul. 

Steps to conversion. 

Repentance. 

Mental assent to Christ' s ability, — or hope, — perhaps 
faint. 

Trusting 

Asking. 

Yielding. 

Saved. 

Faith is the pathway which leads from darkness to 
light, from wrath to "no condemnation," from death 
to life, from shame to glory, from being an alien to 
sonship, from earth to Heaven, through Christ. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 21 



CHAPTER ly. 

GRACE. 

Looking again at Ej)li. 2:8 we notice another element 
which enters into the plan of salvation, namely, that 
of grace. '"For by grace are ye saved through faith." 
What is this element of grace which plays so impor- 
tant a part in the future welfare of humanity? 

Grace originally meant that property of a thing 
which causes it to give joy to the hearers or beholders. 
Grace in its common application means any endow- 
ment or characteristic fitted to win favor, or confer 
pleasure or benefit. But grace soon came to mean not 
only the characteristic or quality of a person or thing, 
but the person, or thing, or act itself ; so that we came 
to speak, not only of the qualities of a person which 
gave joy to the beholder, but of the favor which one 
bestowed uj)on another which brought about joy, as 
grace. From being applied to such favors bestowed 
by man upon man, it came to be applied to the favors 
which God bestows upon man. But man is unworthy 
the benefits which God bestows upon him, and thus 
the word came to mean a favor bestowed by God upon 
man, of which man is not worthy. Another element 
enters into the term which was given it in classic 
Greek, namely, that of a favor freely done, without 
any expectation of return. So that the term ''grace," 



22 



HINTS AND HELPS 



as we find it in the verse quoted above, signifies the 
favor bestowed freely by God npon man, "without 
money and without price," and of which man is not 
worthy. By such a favor as this are ye saved through 
faith. 

This divine favor of salvation is freely bestowed up- 
on man, ''without money and without price," and ex- 
cludes : 

1. All idea of indebtedness. Grod does not ask of us 
any return for the favor bestowed, in the sense of pay- 
ment for that favor. Rom. 4:4, 16, "Now to him that 
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of 
debt." "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by 
grace." 

2. All idea of works. Rom. 11:6, "And if by grace, 
then is it no more of works : otherwise grace is no more 
grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace. " 
Salvation is the free gift of Grod, and can not be pur- 
chased or obtained by any work of man. It is exclud- 
ed by the very fundamental idea of grace. Eph. 2:9, 
"Not of works, lest any man should boast." 

3. All idea of fulfilling the law that it may be ob- 
tained. Gal. 5:4, 5, "Christ has become of no effect 
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law ; 
ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit 
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." John 1: 
17, ' ' For the law was given by Moses, but grace and 
truth came by Jesus Christ." 

4. All worthiness in the recipient. Rom. 5:20, 
"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might 
abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much 
more abound." II Cor. 5:19, "To wit, that God was 
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not im- 
puting their trespasses unto them." The law became 
the looking-glass into which man might look and real- 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 23 

ize his imperfections. It became his school-master to 
teacli him his sinfuhiess and helplessness, and thei'el)y 
turn his attention to Jesus the Christ, Avho came ' ' of 
grace" to save him. And then grace came and took 
him in all his sinfulness and helplessness and offered 
him salvation, and where his sin was great, grace was 
greater still. 

Let us recapitulate. Grace, we have found, is the 
favor of Cxod in offering salvation to man freely, ' 'with- 
out money and without price," and of which man is 
not worthy. It is therefore, — 

The undeserved favor of God, freely bestowed. 

In receiving this salvation it excludes forevermore 
the idea that salvation is to be obtained by the pay- 
ment of any price as for an indebtedness, by keeping 
j)erfectly the law, by our good works, or by a righteous 
character. Salvation is "of grace, ' ' and therefore a 
free gift, and we can render unto the Lord for all His 
benefits nothing except to take, as did the Psalmist, 
''the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the 
Lord." 

Grace finds man a sinner, perhaps the vilest of the 
vile, without the ability to pay any of his indebted- 
ness to the Lord, without power to keep His law, or 
work out his own salvation. It takes him as he is, 
pays his indebtedness, saves him from his sins, and 
gives him the ability to do good works. Wonderful 
grace of God I coming not to impute trespasses unto 
man, but to reconcile him unto a loving, forgiving and 
compassionate Father. 

By grace are ye redeemed. Eph. 1:7. 

By grace are ye justified. Rom. 8:24. 

By grace are ye saved. Eph. 2:8. 

By grace we have everlasting consolation and good 
hope. II Thess. 2:16. 



24 HINTS AND HELPS 

There are many who seem to think that grace oper- 
ates np to conversion, but after that we are to be saved 
by our works. To such I would Qommend the book 
of Galatians. The converted sinner, as well as the 
unconverted sinner, is to be saved by grace and not 
by keeping the law, Rom. 6:14, 15, "For sin shall 
not have dominion over you : for ye are not under 
the law, but under grace. What then 't shall we sin, 
because we are not under the law, but under grace '( 
Grod forbid." This ought to come to the saved and 
the unsaved alike with all its weight of promise and 
glory. We are led to exclaim over and over again, 
' ' wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death ? ' ' Discouragement fol- 
lows discouragement, as we try to do the whole law, 
but we can exclaim with the apostle, exultant with 
the thought of deliverance, "I thank God through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." We shall at last be deliv- 
ered, for our salvation is not through works, but by 
grace. "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." 

' ' Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, 
and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy, and eat ; 
yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and 
without price." Is. 55:1. "But the gift of God is 
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 
6:23. "And of His fulness have all we received, and 
grace for grace." John 1:16. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 25 



CHAPTER V. 

REPENTANCE. 

"Now after that John was i)ut in i:)rison, Jesus came 
into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of 
God, and saying. The time is fulfilled, and the king- 
dom of God is at hand : repent ye, and believe the gos- 
pel." Mark 1:14, 15. This text from the lips of the 
Master introduces us to another element in the plan of 
salvation, namely, repentance. There are certain con- 
ditions in the plan of salvation, which man must meet 
that he may obtain peace with God ; they are the 
human elements of salvation, — Repent and Balieve. 
Whenever man accepts and fulfills these conditions, 
God will do His part. The groundwork of justifica- 
tion has already been laid by the Lord Jesus Christ. 
It now becomes necessary for him to repent and be- 
lieve, that salvation may be applied, and completed 
in regeneration and sanctification. We have already 
examined the element of belief, we will now find what 
the Scriptures say on this other human element of sal- 
vation, — repentance. 

In the first place notice that there is a repentance 
spoken of in Scripture that is not a repentance unto 
salvation. At Matt. 27:3, 4, we read, "Then Judas, 
which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was con- 
demned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty 
pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, 



26 HINTS AND HELPS 

I have sinned in tliat I liave betrayed tlie innocent 
blood." Tlien in the hfth verse of this same chax)ter 
we read, ' ' And lie cast down the pieces of silver in the 
temj)le, and departed, and went and hanged himself." 
Surely such repentance as this, which only leads to self- 
destruction, is not that repentance which leads to salva- 
tion. Again, at II Cor. 7:10, we read of a sorrow of 
the world that worketh death. So there is very 
plainly a repentance which is not a godly sorrow unto 
salvation, but which leads away from God to the realms 
of despair. 

Repentance is not, therefore, the sorrow of this 
world. Lookino- at the case of Judas we discover the 
cause which led to his repentance. We read, 'AVhen 
he saw he was condemned, he repented." We have no 
record that Judas was sorry that he had betrayed his 
Master, but he repented because he saw He was con- 
demned : not godly sorrow for sin, but human sor- 
row because our sin has led to disaster. If we 
examine the case a little more closely we shall find 
something of an explanation in the word from which 
the word repentance is translated. It is an entirely 
different word from the one which is translated repent, 
as used by the Master in His call to repentance. In 
its New-Testament usage it seems applied to cases 
where there is only sorrow for what is done, " a dis- 
liking of a thing with its consequences and effects ; ' ' 
so that if the same thing had not brought about such 
sorrowful consequences there would have been no re- 
pentance. So we might justly paraphrase the repent- 
ance of Judas by saying. When Judas saw He was 
condemned, he was grieved in his mind that his betray- 
al of Jesus had brought Him into such condemnation, 
and he threw down the silver, and went and hanged 
himself. Repentance is not, to be sorry because of 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 27 

the consequences of sin, to regret that we are fonnd 
out in our sinning. Such repentance is simply worldly 
sorrow which leads to death. True i-epentance goes 
deeper into the soul than this. 

Turning to Matt. 3:8, we read John the Baptist's 
exhortation to the Pharisees and Sadducees : ' ' Bring 
forth therefore fruits meet for repentance,'' shoAving 
that there are certain fruits by which such true rex)ent- 
ance is known. Let us examine the words translated 
rei:)entance, in their fullness of meaning, and see if Ave 
can discover what sonie of these signs are. At Ezek. 
18:30, we read, '' Repent, and turn yourselves from 
all your transgressions ; so iniquity shall not be your 
ruin." Here the word translated repent signifies " to 
turn, " or ' ' to return ; ' ' the remainder of the verse 
denotes from what we are to turn, namely, ''from all 
your transgressions." So that in this case the ''fruits 
meet for repentance ' ' would be, turning from sin. At 
Acts 20:21, Ave read of a " repentance toAvard God," so 
that a complete repentance is turning aAvay from all 
your transgressions toward God, — to turn from sin to 
righteousness. The Avord translated repentance, in the 
Averse last quoted, signifies, to haA^e another ndnd, 
which shows that there is a proper cause for turning 
from sin to righteousness. That the change is not 
made while the mind is the same, concerning sin, but 
that there is a new mind concerning sin, and then a 
change from it to God. It has been tersely said that 
man naturally stands AAdth his back toward God, and 
that repentance is right about face. The Avord trans- 
lated repent in Mark l:lo means literally, "to knoAv 
afterward.'' The Avord translated repentance in Acts 
20:21 means the change of mind which is the result of 
knowing afterward," coupled with a regret for the 
course pursued, and a determination on a neAv line of 



28 HINTS AND HELPS 

conduct for the future. All this enters into that re- 
pentance to " salvation not to be repented of," and is 
quite different from that repentance which, like that 
of Judas, is simply sorrow for the disastrous results 
of our line of conduct. 

At II Cor. 7:10 we read that godly sorrow worketh 
repentance, so that we have the following elements 
which enter into true repentance, and by which it may 
be known : 

1. A change of mind concerning our line of conduct. 

2. Godly sorrow because of our sins, — our past line 
of conduct. 

3. A turning from our transgressions. 

4. A turning to God, or a new line of conduct. 
This is that repentance to which the world is sum- 
moned, and which leads to the heavenly home. 

It may be well to add, by way of caution, that the 
word translated ' ' repent, ' ' wherever it refers to God 
who repents, is neither of the words referred to above ; 
rather, a word which means pre-ejninently, to be 
grieved. I mention this because it often comes up 
when talking with inquirers on the subject of repent- 
ance. 

Thoughts. 

God desires all to repent. II Pet. 2:9. 

Christ came to call sinners to rej^entance. Luke 
5:32. 

The goodness of God leadeth to repentance. Rom. 
2:4. 

Death confronts us if we do not repent. Luke 13:5. 



FOB THE INQUIRY ROOM. 29 



CHAPTER YI. 

JUSTIFICATION^. 

Rom. 3:24, "Being justified freely by his grace 
Rom. 5:1, through the redemption which is in Christ 
Jesus." " Therefore, being justified by faith, we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." In 
these texts we have still another element which enters 
into the plan of salvation, namely, justification. 
Justification as applied to sinful man, is first of all, 
pardon. JS'o man can be accounted justified before 
God, unless forgiven for the sins which he has com- 
mitted. But justification is more than pardon. Par- 
don simply waives the claims of the law. A man 
is taken for a theft, he is convicted and cast into 
prison; the governor extends to him pardon, i. e. : 
he waives the claims of the law in his case, 
but this act does not justify the criminal. It does 
not meet the demands of the law. It remits the 
penalty, but looks no farther ; its basis is mercy. 
God in his great plan of salvation looks farther 
than to pardon the sinner. He is the judge of 
man, and as his judge He seeks to justify him upon 
righteous grounds. In pardon, the claims of the law 
are waived ; in justification they are satisfied. So that 
in the case of the man arrested for theft, if proved 
innocent, the judge or jury declares that the law has 
been kept and that the man is not a criminal, but just. 



30 HINTS AND HELPS 

The difference between the Justification of a man ar- 
rested for theft and acquitted at tlie liands of an 
earthly judge or jury, and the justification of the sin- 
ner at the hand of God as his judge, is that in the first 
case, the man is not a thief, and he is accounted just 
because he has not transgressed the law, while in the 
latter instance the man is a sinner, he has transgressed 
the law ; but such is the wonderful plan of salvation, 
that Grod, as man's sovereign, can pardon the sinner 
and release him from the penalty resting over him ; 
and then, as his judge, can pronounce him just, on the 
ground of the law satisfied. What a scheme of salva- 
tion ! Sinful man pardoned from all his sins, and then 
not considered in the light of a pardoned criminal, but 
as a man who has never sinned. 

Justification goes a step farther. It not only pro- 
nounces the sinner just on the ground of the law kept, 
but it declares him entitled to all the advantages and 
honors due those who perfectly keep the law. Sinner, 
this is your justification if you will accept it. As jus- 
tified, the penalty for your transgression no longer 
hangs over you ; in the eyes of God you are consid- 
ered just, and entitled to every consideration due the 
perfect man. 

How is this justification possible 1 

1. Not by any virtue seen in us, nor by any works 
done by us. Gal. 2:16, " Knowing that a man is not 
justified by the works of the law." Rom. 4:6-8, 
' ' Even as David also described the blessedness of the 
man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without 
works, saying. Blessed are they whose iniquities are 
forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the 
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Rom. 
4:2,3, "For if Abraham were justified by works, he 
hath whereof to glory ; but not before God. For what 



KoK I'll ]•; i.\<^ri \:\ koo.m. :Ji 

saitli the scrii:>tnre ? Abraham believed God, and it 
was counted unto him for righteousness. '' We all 
realize that no man can be justihed on the ground that 
he is not sinful, " For all have sinned ;'' and the above 
quoted passages teach us that we are not justified be- 
cause of anything we have done or may do. In what 
way then can a just God pronounce the sinner just ( 

2. The ground of this justification is the obedience 
— fultiling the law, — and suffering of Christ. Rom. 
5:18,19, "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment 
came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the 
righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men 
unto justification of life. For as by one man's diso- 
bedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience 
of one shall many be made righteous.-' Isa. 53:5, 
' ' But he w^as wounded for our transgressions, he was 
bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our 
peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are 
healed." Also I Peter 2:24. 

3. Our sins were laid on Christ and He paid the pen- 
alty for us. Isa. 53:6, *'Tlie Lord hath laid on him 
the iniquity of us all." Gal. 3:13, "Christ hath re- 
deemed us from the curse of the law, being made a 
curse for us." I Pet. 2:24, '* Who his own self bare 
our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being- 
dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." 

4. Not only have our sins been laid on Christ, but 
His righteousness is imputed to us. Rom. 4:5-8, "But 
to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that 
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for right- 
eousness. Even as David also described the blessed- 
ness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteous- 
ness without works," etc. Phil. 3:9, "And be found 
in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is 
of the law, but that which is through the faith of 



89 nm^TQ AND HELPS 

Christ, the righteousness which is of Grod by faith." 
Rom. 3:21, 22, 24, "But now the righteousness of God 
without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the 
law and the prophets ; even the righteousness of God 
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon 
all them that believe • -^ -^ ^ ^ Being justified 
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus." II Cor. 5:21, "For he hath made him 
to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be 
made the righteousness of God in him." Thus we see 
in what way a just God has made provision for justify- 
ing the sinner. 

The basis of this justification is the obedience and 
suffering of Christ. 

Our sins have been laid upon Him. 

His righteousness is imputed to us. The thief has 
been captured, convicted and sentenced. Here is a 
man who has always obeyed the law ; he offers to suf- 
fer in the thief s stead and the offer is accepted on the 
part of the judge. The guilt of the sinner is transfer- 
red to the innocent man and he pays the penalty, 
while the thief goes free. So Christ takes the sinner's 
place. Are all the world then free from the guilt of 
sin, and justified before God ? The work of Christ in 
the justification of the world is completed, but there 
is one condition upon which rests your personal justi- 
fication, namely, that of faith. Rom. 4:9, "For we 
say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteous- 
ness." Rom. 5:1, " Therefore being justified by faith, 
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." Faith is the means by which we grasp that 
justification made possible for us by the work of 
Christ. It rests with you whether you will accept it, 
or reject it. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 33 



CHAPTER VII. 

REGENERATION. 

Although the sinner may be justified, as we have 
seen in the preceding chapter, he is by no means fit 
for that heaven into which no sin can enter. Justifi- 
cation does away with the guilt of the sinner and ren- 
ders him judicially righteous, but he is still deceitful 
in heart and desperately wicked. The guilt has been 
taken away, but the heart needs cleansing. And this 
leads us to another element of salvation, namely, 
regeneration. 

At Jer. 17:9 we read, "The heart is deceitful above 
all things, and desperately wicked." At Hab. 1:13, 
' ' Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst 
not look on iniquity. " At Matt. d:S, "Blessed are the 
pure in heart : for they shall see God." Here we find 
the following statements : 

1. The heart of man is deceitful and desperately 
wicked. 

2. God is of purer eyes than to behold evil. 

3. The pure in heart shall see God. 

How then can sinful man ever expect to stand in 
the presence of the holy God? Either God must 
change or man must be changed . But God is unchange- 
able in His holiness. Man must be changed then from 
his sinful condition to one of holiness, if he expects to 
live in the presence of God. This conclusion we find 
verified at Heb. 12:14, " Follow peace with all men, and 



34 HINTS AND HELPS 

holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." 
Is such a change provided for, and if so how is it 
brought about? Turning to John 3:3, 5, ^i, we read 
the language of Jesus to Mcodemus, "Verily, verily, 
I say unto thee. Except a man be born again, he can 
not see the kingdom of God." "Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the 
Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." 
"Marvel not that I said unto thee. Ye must be born 
again." Here we find the demand made upon man 
for a complete change,— a new birth. Without this 
regeneration no man can "see the kingdom of God," 
he can not " enter into the kingdom." Does it seem 
stern and arbitrary for a God of grace and loving-kind- 
ness to demand of weak and sinful man a complete 
change of his sinful nature, as the condition whereby 
he may see Him and enter into, and enjoy His king- 
dom ? But is not this natural and necessary ? 

Let us first of all turn our attention to two facts tak- 
ing place continually around us, which may give us a 
little light. At the gateway of every government of 
any degree of civilization, there is written a condition 
of citizenship, namely, that of naturalization. "You 
must be naturalized," is the voice of our government 
to those coming within her borders from other govern- 
ments, and who would become her citizens. She de- 
mands that they shall throw oif allegiance to their 
former governments, and take the oath of allegiance 
to her. Is there anything stern or arbitrary or unnat- 
ural in this demand ? No one, except those who are 
too far down the scale of humanity to appreciate gov- 
ernment, will say there is. It is the nation's safe- 
guard. This fact is taking place in the field of gov- 
ernment, and everyone says it is just. At the gateway 
of the heavenly kingdom, just as much a government 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 35 

as this government of these United States, the voice 
of the King, eternal, immortal, and invisible, is heard 
demanding of all who have been citizens in the king- 
dom of Satan, "Ye must be naturalized, if ye would 
become citizens of the heavenly kingdom." You 
must throw off allegiance to sin and Satan, and take 
the oath of allegiance to righteousness and to God. 

The other fact is taking place in the field of nature. 
It is the one brought out so clearly in its relation to 
the second birth by Prof. Drumniond in "Natural Law 
in the Spiritual World." We have been taught that 
there are two great kingdoms in nature, the inorganic 
and the organic. How can the inorganic be transfer- 
red from its kingdom to the organic ? It can not 
change itself. No earth can transfer itself into the 
beautiful flower or stately tree. From the organic 
kingdom there goes the demand to the inorganic. ' ' If 
ye would enter my kingdom, ye must be born again," 
or "from above." In accord wuth this demand, when 
you desire to transform the lifeless matter of the inor- 
ganic kingdom to the life of the organic, you place a 
shell containing a point of life, as the acorn or a morn- 
ing-glory seed, dow^n into the inorganic matter. The 
life of the seed' soon comes into contact with the life- 
less matter, and the lifeless matter becomes trans- 
formed, under proper conditions, into the living tree 
or vinj. No one thinks strange of this demand of the 
live kingdom upon the lifeless. But there is another 
kingdom, namely, the spiritual, — a holy kingdom. 
From it there comes a voice to the kingdom of sin say- 
ing, "If 3^ou desire to be transformed to the spiritual 
kingdom of holiness, you must be born again," or 
"from above." Is there anything unnatural in the 
demand when we read it in the light of similar demands 
which are being made around us ? Surely God's de- 



36 HII^TS AND HELPS 

inands upon man are reasonable and just. God makes 
this demand upon man because it is necessary ; but in 
making the demand, He immediately says that such a 
change will be wrought from above by the Spirit. 
Weak and sinful man has no more work to do in this 
change of heart than the lifeless earth in being 
changed into the beautiful flower. So while He says 
it is necessary, He says, "I will do it." We can not 
call such a demand, accompanied with such an offer, 
unjust, especially as we I'ealize the meaning, '' Ye can 
not see the kingdom of God" without it, i. e. accord- 
ing to the very nature of things, and not because of 
any arbitrary command, — without regeneration we 
can not enter into the kingdom of holiness. The new 
heart, the new life, the new man, is from above. 
Weary souls, cease your struggling and yield your- 
selves to the Father who, through His own spirit, will 
transform that heart of yours ; though it be red like 
crimson it shall be as wool. 

We see glimpses of this doctrine in the changes of 
names in Scripture. Abram becomes by faith, Abra- 
ham ; Jacob prevails in wrestling with the angel and 
becomes Israel, Simon is called into discipleship and 
becomes Peter ; Saul of Tarsus has his blinded eyes 
opened and becomes Paul. 

We find the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
ment emphatic in their demand concerning it. At I 
Sam. 10:0, we read Samuel's words to Saul, " And the 
spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt 
prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another 
man." At the ninth verse of the same chapter, " And 
it yvsiS so, that when he had turned his back to go from 
Samuel, God gave him another heart." At Ps. 51:10 
we read the pleading of the Psalmist, " Create in me 
a clean heart, God ; and renew a right S]3irit within 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 37 

me." At Is. 1:18, ''Though your sins be as scarlet, 
they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool." At Ezek. 3G:20, "A 
new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I 
put within you : and I will take away the stony heart 
out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." 
At Matt. 18:3, "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be 
converted, and become as little children, ye shall not 
enter into the kingdom of heaven." These are a few 
of the passages of Scripture which show forth the de- 
mand made. 

Let us see, now, just how the case stands with man 
as a sinner. He is here a rebel against God, a trans- 
gressor of His law, his heart deceitful and desperately 
wicked, a subject of the kingdom of Satan. Yonder 
is a kingdom of holiness whose king is the mighty 
God, whose face he can not behold in his sinful condi- 
tion and live. But that mighty King sends a messen- 
ger to the man of sin. The messenger informs him 
that the King offers him pardon for his transgressions, 
and the citizenship of the kingdom of holiness, upon 
certain conditions : 

He must repent of his sins. 

Trust himself to His hands. 

This being done He promises 

To take away his heart of stone and give him a heart 
of flesh ; to remove the heart of sin and give him one 
of purity through the second birth, and thus putting 
him into harmony with the kingdom of holiness. For 
by pardon unmerited are ye saved through believing, 
and by means of a transformed heart, made pure from 
above, by the Spirit. 



38 HINTS AND HELPS 



CHAPTER YIII. 

SANCTIFICATION. 

With tlie guilt removed and tlie heart regenerated, 
the work is not yet com]3leted. Man is not yet ready 
to mingle with the pure of a sinless Heaven : he does 
not yet measure np to the fullness of the stature of his 
Master. Regeneration begins a work which another 
element of salvation, namely, sanctilication, comx)letes. 
This element we will now consider. 

The phrase, " to sanctify, " is used in two different 
senses in the scriptures : (1) to set apart from a com- 
mon [to a sacred use, (2) to render morally pure, or 
holy. It is sanctilication in the latter sense we are to 
consider. 

The work of sanctification is not immediately the 
result of any good works on the part of man. Rom. 
14;17, " For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; 
but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy 
Ghost." I John 3:7, '' He that doeth righteousness is 
righteous." Righteousness of heart does not depend 
upon outward works, nor forms and ceremonies ; but 
righteous works are the result, of which a i3ure heart 
is the cause. ''Work out your own salvation with 
fear and trembling," is the command of Paul, but he 
immediately adds, "For it is God which worketh in 
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." 
Phil. 2:12, 13. That is, we are to work out what is 
worked in us. Good works then become the sign of a 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 39 

good heart. But while sanctification of heart is not 
the result of good works done, we must bear in mind 
that every time we jjerfonii a righteous a(;t, we are so 
much the stronger in our tendencies toward righteous- 
ness. 

Sanctification, like regeneration, is a work of God. 
I Thes.s. 5:23, /'And the very God of peace sanctify 
you wholly." Ej^h. 5:25, 2T, "Even as Christ also 
loved the church, and gave himself for it ; that he 
might sanctify and cleanse it with the Avashing of w^a- 
ter by the word, that he might present it to himself a 
glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any 
such thing ; but that it should be hoi 3^ and without 
blemish. ' ' Rom. 15: 16, ' ' Being sanctified by the Holy 
Ghost." I Pet. 1:2, "Through sanctification of the 
Spirit." Here we find each member of the Trinity en- 
gaged in the work of sanctification, but it is especially 
the work of the Spirit, Avhose office it is to api^ly the 
grace obtained through the mediation of the Son. 

The means em^^loyed in carrying on the work of 
sanctification are, 

1. Faith, through which salvation is begun and com- 



2. The truth revealed in the Scriptures. John 15:3, 
"Now ye are clean through the word which I have 
spoken unto you." John 17:17, "Sanctify them 
through the truth: thy word is truth." I Pet. 2:2, 
' ' As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the 
word, that ye may grow thereby." The word teaches 
us what truth is ; by embracing its j)romises, following 
its commands, and carrying out its directions with the 
aid of the Holy Spirit, we grow strong in the Lord. 

3. Prayer. The soul growls strong in righteousness 
by communion with God, and He has promised to aid 
those who call ui3on Him. Matt. 7:7, "Ask, and it 



40 HINTS AND HELPS 

shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, 
and it shall be opened unto you." 

4. By what may be termed the means of grace, — the 
sacraments of baj)tism and the Lord's Supper, active 
religious duties at public meetings, leading souls to 
Christ, serving the Master whenever, wherever, and in 
whatever way the Master shall call. 

5. Chastisement at the hand of a loving Father. 
Heb. 12:10, 11, "For they (that is our parents) verily 
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure ; 
but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his 
holiness. IS^ow no chastening for the present seemeth 
to be joyous, but grievous : nevertheless, afterward it 
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto 
them which are exercised thereby." 

In these various avenues the Spirit operates, mak- 
ing us day by day more like our Master. The above 
points may be called the positive means of sanctifi- 
cation. We will now notice the negative means. 
These have been tersely stated by a recent writer as, 
suicide, mortification, limitation, and refer to our 
dealings with the various temptations of sin. Let 
us notice them separately as given in the Scriptures. 

1. Suicide. Matt. 18:8, 9, "Wherefore if thy hand 
or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them 
from thee. ^ ^ -^ And if thine eye offend thee, 
Xoluck it out, and cast it from thee. ' ' There are cer- 
tain tendencies and appetites to sin which must be 
completely conquered, and at once ; they must never 
be allowed to grow by being gratified. You can not 
overcome them by a gradual process. One of the best 
illustrations, and the one given by Prof. Drummond, 
is that of the drunkard. He has at conversion a tre- 
mendous appetite for intoxicants, but total abstinence 
is the only effectual remedy. Suicide of the appetite 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 41 

by cutting off completely tliat upon which it thrives, 
is the sure process toward cure and final sanctiticatiou. 

2. Mortification. Rom. 8:12, 18, ''Therefore, breth- 
ren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the 
flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die : but 
if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the 
body, ye shall live." In contrast with the above point, 
' ' mortification implies a gradual, rather than a sudden 
process." There are certain tendencies to sin which it 
is well nigh impossible to overcome at once. This is 
not to be construed as an excuse for allowing them to 
remain. The fight must be continuous, though the 
advance to complete victory may be gradual. Such 
tendencies are those which lie within us and are not 
created or fed from without. Suicide of an api:)etite 
for alcoholic liquors becomes j^ossible by cutting off 
the sux^ply upon which the apjDetite thrives. But 
there are certain tendencies, like a liability to be easily 
angered, etc., Avhicli we can not overcome by cutting 
off any outward supply. The difficulty lies wholly 
within and must be overcome by constant watchfulness 
and prayer. The pathway to complete triumph may 
be sloAv in such cases, but it must be an advance and 
continuous. AYe grow strong by resistance. 

3. Limitation. Many things enter into our lives 
which are not sins in themselves, but become sin by 
abuse. Prof. Drummond gives as an illustration tlie 
love of money, which is the root of all evil. "The 
love of money, ' ' he says, ' ' up to a certain point is a 
necessity, beyond that it may become one of the worst 
of sins. Christ said, 'Ye can not serve God and 
mammon.' The two services at a certain point be- 
come incompatible, and hence correspondence with one 
must cease." Here might be classed such amusements 
as, in their place, are evidently harmless, but which 
carried to an excess become plainly items of sin. 



42 HINTS AND HELPS 

Here might be catalogued also, those cases where an 
enjoyment or practice which is not sin to those en- 
gaged in it becomes such to others. A game of cards 
might be j)^rfectly harmless in thousands of pure 
homes, but it might awaken in the reformed gambler 
suppressed tendencies which would prove his ruin. 
Fermented wine at the communion table mia-ht be a 
means of grace to thousands of pure hearts, but to the 
reformed drunkard it might prove his destruction. 

We are bidden to come out from this world and l)e 
separate from it, and yet this has its limitation. Up 
to a certain jjoint contact with this world and con- 
formity to its practices, become a necessity, but there 
is a limit beyond which such contact and conformity 
stop the progress of sanctification, dull the sensibility 
of the soul to spiritual things, and perha^^s ruin the 
soul forever. 

It is not necessary for us to discuss here the question 
when the work of sanctification is completed. To 
those who are discouraged at the seemingly slow j)rog- 
ress of the annihilation of sinful tendencies, the words 
of St. Paul ought to come with comfort. Phil. 8:12- 
14, " JNTot as though I had already attained, either 
were already perfect : but I follow after, if that I may 
apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of 
Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have 
apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those 
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
things which are before, I press toward the mark for 
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
But Paul was pressing on toward the mark. We must 
be advancing. Though you may not notice it from 
day to day, the months and the years in contrast ought 
to show marked improvement. Be assured also that 
satisfaction is sure to come and we shall awake some 
day^ with the Master' s likeness. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 48 



CHAPTER IX. 



PRAYER. 



How shall this great salvation which is by grace 
through faith, and which promises to delivei' my soul 
from the guilt and power of sin, be obtained '. Shall 
I Avait, being sorry for my sins with a godly sorrow, 
until God shall come and shall work this work of 
grace { God is already near. ' ' Ask, and it shall be 
given you." The key in the hands of man which will 
unlock the gate of heaven, is prayer. God has placed 
salvation at the call of man. He has only to meet the 
conditions and "ask," and the salvation is his. Not 
only has God asked us to ask Him for salvation, but 
being saved. He still asks us to call upon Him, in days 
of trouble, for deliverance, in days of weakness for 
power, in days of loneliness for companionship and 
comfort. He bids us call upon Him not only for our 
own salvation, but for the salvation of our friends, our 
neighbors, the world. Prayer is pre-eminently a Scrij)- 
ture teaching. The Old Testament breathes the spirit 
of x)i'ayer in all its chapters, in all its examples of 
power and faith, in all its Psalms. Christ taught His 
disciples to pray. It is recorded of Him that He 
spent night after night in prayer. If it was essential 
to that Life how much more to us. Matt. 7:7, 8, 
"Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall 
hnd ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you : for 
every one that asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh 



44 - HINTS AND HELPS 

findeth ; and to Mm thatknocketh it shall be opened." 
John 14:13, 14, " And whatsoever ye shall ask in my 
name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified 
in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I 
will do it." The best men of all ages, the men of the 
greatest power in the Christian church, have been men 
given to much prayer. We might say, with certain 
limitations, that a christian's power and his exercise 
in prayer increase in equal proportions. Prayer is 
talking to God in adoration, in confession, in thanks- 
giving, in petition, in self-surrender. But is prayer 
not an endeavor to change the plan and purpose of the 
unchangeable Grod \ No ! Prayer is a part of His 
plan. Three hundred and thirty-four times we find 
the words ' ' prayer' ' and ' ' pray" in Scriptures, to say 
nothing about their equivalents, "ask," "seek," 
" knock," etc. It seems as though God had been won- 
derfully in earnest and wonderfully faithful in teach- 
ing the world to pray. 

Prayer is always to be ofl'ered in the name of Jesus. 
It is only because of Him that we have any access to 
a throne of grace. John 16:23, 24, "And in that day 
ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, 
he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing 
in my name ; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy 
may be full. " 

But there are certain hindrances which prevent us 
from reaching the ear of God and obtaining our re- 
quests, which we will notice : 

1. Seeking temporal things first. To many of us 
the words of Christ to Martha (Luke 10:41) are most 
applicable. We are forever getting our temporal 
things first; first in our thoughts and first in our 
prayers, forgetting that the Master has given us a rCile 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 45 

to direct iis in these tilings. Matt. 6:33, "Seek ye 
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and 
all these things shall be added unto you. " Instead of 
following this direction, we too often make our tem- 
poral things the chief burden of our prayers. God wants 
us first of all for Himself, and when our affections are 
so set upon Him that other things naturally take the 
second place, as of secondary imj)ortance, we shall 
find more of our requests for both sioiritual and tem- 
poral things granted. 

2. Regarding iniquity in the heart. Ps. 66:18, "If 
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear 
me." Is. 59:1, 2, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not 
shortened, that it cannot save ; neither is his ear 
heavy, that it cannot hear : but your iniquities have 
separated between you and your God, and your sins 
have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." 
The reason why our prayers are not answered of God, 
is not that He can not hear our petitions, neither that 
He has not the power to save us, but our sins and the 
cherishing of sin in our hearts have prevented Him 
from answering us. The trouble is with us and not 
with God. 

3. An unforgiving spirit. Matt. 5:23, 24, "There- 
fore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there re- 
memberest that thy brother hath ought against thee ; 
leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; 
first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and 
offer thy gift." Matt. 6:14, 15, "For if ye forgive 
men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also 
forgive you : but if ye forgive not men their tres- 
passes, neither will your Father forgive your tres- 
passes." Matt. 6:12, "And forgive us our debts, as 
we forgive our debtors." The forgiving spirit is the 
one which is successful at the throne of grace. The 



46 HINTS AND HELPS 

measure of such forgiving spirit is as God, for Christ' s 
sake, lias forgiven yon. Epli. 4:32, ^' And be ye kind 
to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, 
even as God for Clirist's sake hath forgiven you/' 

4. Selfishness, a failure to make all our prayers sub- 
ject to the will of God, praying for something which 
in itself may be right, but to gratify ourselves. If I 
should ask God to send His Spirit upon us, that there 
might be a revival of religion, the prayer would be 
right in itself ; but if I should ask it, that I might be 
glorified by the result, the motive would be selfish and 
wrong. John 14:13, " And whatsoever ye shall ask in 
my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glor- 
ified in the Son." Our motive should always be to 
glorify God in the Son, and never to gratify self. 
Every prayer should be modeled after the prayer of 
Christ. Matt. 26:39, "If it be possible, let this cup 
X3ass from me : nevertheless not a^« I will, but as thou 
wilt. ' ' God knows best whether our prayers should 
be answered or not, and many times the drinking of 
the cup of sorrow will prove the only path to the res- 
urrection. Every prayer should close with "Not my 
will but thine be done," if not in words, that should 
be its spirit. 

5. A failure to suj)plement our prayers by our ef- 
forts to have them answered. Mark 14:38, "Watch 
ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation," is the in- 
junction of Christ. To watch is as essential as to 
pray. Very many pray rightly, but never watch, and 
are consequently continually entering into temptation 
and are overcome in sin, and they wonder why their 
prayers are not answered. They pray earnestly for 
the conversion of loved relatives or friends, and never 
siDeak to them about it, when God may be waiting to 
use them as the very instruments through which that 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 47 

conversion may be accomplislied. Mat. 28:19, 20, 
" Goy and " Lo, I am with you alway." 

6. Unbelief. Mark 11:22-24,, "And Jesus answer- 
ing saitli unto tliem. Have faith in God. For verily I 
say unto you. That Avhosoever shall say unto this 
mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the 
sea ; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe 
that those things which he saith shall come to pass ; 
he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say 
unto you. What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, 
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.'"' 
Heb. 11:6, ''But without faith it is impossible to 
please him : for he that cometli to God must believe 
that he is, and that he is a re warder of theni that dil- 
igently seek, him." 

7. Too easily discouraged. Luke 11:8. 

Such are many of the hindrances whereby we do not 
receive an answer to our prayers. Let us begin rightly 
before God, meet those conditions upon which the ful- 
filment of His promises rests, and then asking, our joy 
shall be made full. 



48 HINTS AKD HELPS 



CHAPTER X. 

ASSUEANCE. 

Is it possible to know that we are tlie cMldren of 
God ? Is it possible to know and realize that we are 
saved ? Can we know, this side the gate of pearl, that 
we shall have an abnndant entrance 'i Is it not pre- 
suming on God to say that I am saved from my sins ? 
It is not only not presumptuous to claim a knowledge 
of sonship, but it is a decided dishonor to the testi- 
mony of the Word and of the Spirit not to claim it 
and to know it, if we have yielded ourselves to Him, 
in conversion. If an earthly friend had told us any- 
thing one-half as plainly as God's Word and the 
Spirit have told those who have accepted Christ that 
they are the sons of God, and we would not believe 
him, we would be dishonoring that friend by not hon- 
oring and trusting his testimony. JN^ot only is it dis- 
honoring God, not accepting His testimony, but it is 
one of the chief reasons for the lack of power in the 
church. How can one be ' ' rejoicing in hope' ' if it is 
simply a hope that some day God will save him ? How 
many close their prayers with the sentence, ' ' And 
save us at last!" I remember Dr. Ux)sonof Auburn 
Theological Seminary once saying to his class in Hom- 
iletics, ' ' Young gentlemen, do not close your prayers 
wiih ' Save us at last. ' If you are not saved now, 
you have no business in the ministry." And so I say 
to anyone engaged in the Lord's work, you have no 



FOR THE IJVTQUIRY KOOM. 49 

business in the Master's service unless you are saved. 
There are tens of thousands of the Lord's chiklren 
who might be of tremendous service God ward, if they 
would only grasp with zeal the fact of their salvation. 
But when you approach them on the subject they sim- 
ply say, "I hope so," or "I sux)poseso." That is not 
the testimony of power. It is refreshing to meet the 
man of power and hear his testimony to the knoAvl- 
edge of his salvation. ISTo Christian worker will ever 
be "efficient in the inquiry room, until he grasp the 
knowledge of his salvation. If you should sit down 
])y the side of an inquirer and tell him that you hoped 
if you were faithful you Avould be saved sometime ; 
and then should ask him if he did not want that hope, 
you would probably meet with a negative response. 
Knowledge is always a means of power in earthly mat- 
ters, how much more in heavenly. 

How can I know that I am saved ? 

1. B}^ the Word of God. John 7:17, "If any man 
will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, wdiether 
it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." The 
object of the Gospel of John is to lead the sinner by 
the Gospel, through the door Christ Jesus, by believ- 
ing. John 20:31, "These are written, that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and 
that believing ye might have life through his name." 
The object of the first epistle of John is, that the sin- 
ner may know he is saved. I John 5:13, "These 
things have I written unto you that believe on the 
name of the Son of God ; that ye may know ye have 
eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of 
the Son of God." Thus by the testimony of the 
Word, we see that God intends we shall know that we 
have (not shall have), everlasting life. There are only 
two conditions given to man, upon which his salvation 



60 ItmTS AND HELPS 

rests, "Repent and believe." These we have consid- 
ered at length elsewhere. If yon have met these con- 
ditions, yon can claim yonr salvation now. John 3:36, 
"He that belie veth on the Son hath everlasting life." 
John 5:24, "Yerily, verily, I say nnto yon. He that 
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, 
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condem- 
nation ; bnt is parsed from death unto life^ I can 
conceive of no stronger language on the subject of as- 
surance than this ; ' ' Hath everlasting life, ' ' not will 
have ; ' ' shall not come into condemnation ;' ' our 
works will come into condemnation (see I Cor. 3), but 
we shall not, we who believe on Christ stand justified 
before God, and a justified man can not be condemned; 
"but is passed from death unto life." "But," says 
some one, ' ' I have been a very great sinner, and how 
can I know that He will receive me \ ' ' Read John 
6:37, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise 
cast out." If you have come to Christ, you have 
His promise that He will not cast you out. Only 
believe His Word. Isa. 48:18, "O that thou hadst 
harkened to my commandments ! then had thy peace 
been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of 
the sea." The reason why so many of us are despond- 
ent and gloomy, is that we are looking within at our 
feelings, and not outwardly to God's Word. We know 
we are saved by what God says in His Word, and not 
by our feelings. Feelings may vary from day to day, 
but "the word of our God abideth forever." Trust 
His Word and your peace of soul will be constant ; 
trust your feelings, and it will be as changeable as the 
clouds. 

2. By the Spirit. The Spirit testifies to us that we 
are God's sons. Rom. 8:14, 16 "For as many as are 
led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God." 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 61 

' ' The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that 
we are the children of God." Paul and all the other 
writers in the New Testament, seem to have no doubt 
of their sonship. This is one of Panl's reasons, Now 
the Spirit witnesseth first of all to our sx)irits through 
God's word, but there are many times in our expe- 
riences, and they multiply as we grow in grace and 
knowledge, when we have a blessed assurance in our 
very souls by the Spirit witnessing with our spirits 
that we are the sons of God. These are blessed mo- 
ments and foretastes of Heaven, but this communion 
with the Spirit is not always the same. For some rea- 
son there are times in the lives of all of us, when if we 
should look within, we should hnd nothing u]3on 
which to base our assurance of salvation. Then look 
to the Word. Drive away all doubts with John 5:24. 
3. By the fruits. At Gal. 5:22, 23, we read what 
the fruits of the Spirit are. At I John 1:7, "But if 
we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fel- 
lowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Walking 
in the light of God is a sign of fellowship, and both are 
results of our hearts cleansed by the blood of Jesus. 
I John 2:3. Here, the fruit of salvation is keeping 
His commandments. I John 3:7. Here, doing right- 
eousness, is the sign of a righteous heart. I John 3:14. 
Here, loving one another is the sign that we have 
passed from death unto life. But in hours of tempta- 
tion and trial, all these signs may at times fail us. It 
should be a warning to us, but at the same time, lest 
we should be discouraged because of too great a lack 
of these evidences, the Spirit gives the beautiful lan- 
guage of I John 2:1, 2, "And if any man sin, we have 
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the right- 
eous : And he is the propitiation for our sins : and not 



5^ Hints and helps 

for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world." He has justified us, and on the ground of 
that justification we shall be saved. These signs are 
all evidences that the Spirit is working in us the work 
of sanctification. Our principal ground of assurance, 
however, and the abiding one, is the Word of God. 
Let us cease dishonoring Him and believe His Word, 
and assured of our own salvation we shall be prepared 
to teach others the way. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 53 



CHAPTER XI. 

CONSECRATION^. 

Consecration means set apart for a sacred purpose. 
That we may become efficient in tlie harvest fieid of tlie 
Lord, we not only need this consecration, but we need 
also to realize that we are set apart for this purpose. 

1. What is the i:)osition of the church of Christ on 
earth ;; God is gathering to Himself a people from the 
world but He does not take them at once out of the 
world. At John 17:15 we read, " I pray not that thou 
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou 
shouldest keep them from the evil." They are left 
here for two j^i^iposes : one, that they may grow in 
grace and in the knowledge of the Christ ; the other, 
that they may seek to save that which is lost. These 
two purposes go Hand in hand. No one is really grow- 
ing in grace who is not also being filled by the Mas- 
ter s sj)irit and is sustained by that spirit to seek the 
lost. And, on the other hand, no one is seeking to 
save the lost who is not, by the very nature of the 
work, growing in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus. 
Let us not make the mistake too often made, that 
these two purposes are separate, not only as to their 
nature, but also as to time. God would have His 
church all set apart for this holy purpose, and this is 
His intent in leaving us for a time in the world. Deut. 
14:2, "For thou art a holy people with the Lord thy 
God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar 
people unto himself, above all the nations that are 



54 HINTS Al^D HELPS 

upon the earth." Here we have the fact that God's 
people are chosen to be a peculiar people. The people 
do not choose themselves or set themselves apart, this 
is the work of God. John 15:16, "Ye have not 
chosen me, but I have chosen you." At Deut. 26:17- 
19, we read in what God's people are to be peculiar : 
in walking in His ways and keeping His command- 
ments ; not in physical peculiarities of dress or pos- 
ture, but in life. At Titus 2:11-14 we find the same 
things stated with the additional thought of how such 
peculiarity of life is attained, " Who gave himself for 
us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and pu- 
rify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works." Redeemed by Christ from the curse of the 
law and purified, that they might be peculiar in life 
and be zealous of good works. Read also II Cor. 
14-18. These passages are referring to the church of 
the living God, and not to any one class in the church, 
as priests, ministers, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, etc. God 
has called the entire church out from the world, and 
set it apart for a holy purpose. Oh, that the entire 
church would hear His voice, and understand that it is 
one thing to be redeemed, another to be purified, and 
another to be zealous of good works. John 15:16, 
" Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and 
ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruity 
and that your fruit shoidd remain^ Too many of us 
are afraid that we shall be peculiar. It is the purpose 
of God that His people should be peculiar in holy life 
and conversation, and in bringing forth fruit. How 
many of us have these distinguishing marks "i We 
have a fearfully suggestive passage in Neh. 13:23, 24, 
"In those days also saw I Jews that had married 
wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab : and their 
children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 55 

could not speak in the Jews' language, but according 
to the language of each people." Contrary to the 
commandment of Grod, the Jews had ceased being a 
peculiar people, but had formed alliances with the na- 
tions about them, and, as a consequence, could 
scarcely be distinguished from those nations except in 
name. And how fearfully they reajDed what they had 
sown ! Their children knew nothing about the Jews' 
language, nothing about the holy conversation of 
God's people, but were entirely conversant with the 
world. The fruit of such alliances was all for the 
devil, and none for God. Why are there so many 
skeptical sons and daughters of the church? Why 
are there thousands who can not speak at all the lan- 
guage of Canaan i Can we not find the answer in 
these verses from Nehemiah t 

God has called us out from the world, and conse- 
crated us to a holy conversation, that we should bring 
forth fruit and that our fruit should remain. "So 
shall ye be my disciples," John 15:8. If we are not 
bringing forth fruit both in holy lives and in souls 
saved, how are we the Master' s disciples, and how can 
we expect our sons and our daughters to know Him 'i 

Our position before God, then, is that of a people 
chosen by Him, peculiar in a holy life and conversa- 
tion, zealous of good works, and especially marked as 
the disciples of Christ by bringing forth fruit. 

2. Notice certain special offices to which we are con- 
secrated. We can not consecrate ourselves, that is 
the work of God. We can offer ourselves willingly 
and gladly, He alone can set us apart and enable us to 
do His holy calling. Turning to Lev. 8, we find an 
examjDle of consecration in the setting apart of Aaron 
and his sons to the office of a priest. God chose them 
for the office. He delegated Moses to perform the cer- 



56 HINTS AND HELPS 

emony of consecration. We read all through this 
chapter what Moses did, but only in a few places, 
what Aaron and his sons did. Moses washed them, 
Moses put upon them the priestly robes, Moses sacri- 
ficed the burnt offering, the sin offering and the peace 
offering, Moses anointed them with oil, etc. Aaron 
and his sons were simply obedient and did what Moses 
directed. All these ceremonies were outward symbols 
or object lessons of the inward working of the Sj^irit 
of God. We are taught by it to be obedient, and to 
do those things which are laid upon us by God. We 
learn in His Word that He has set us apart to do His 
will in several special capacities. These I shall sim- 
ply indicate together with the Scriptural references. 

1. Priests, — I Pet. 2:5-9 ; Heb. 18:15, 16 ; Rev. 1:5, 6. 

2. Witnesses, — Acts 1:8; 4:83; 5:32. 

3. Servants,— I Cor. 6:19, 20; Eph. 6:5, 6; Pom. 
1:1. (Paul placed at the head of the mightiest epistle 
ever written, "Paul a servant (slave) of Jesus Christ.")" 

4. Soldiers,— II Tim. 2:3, 4. 

5. Friends, — John 15:15. 

6. Brethren, — John 20:17; Heb. 2:11-13. 

7. Bride of Chrisi,- Eph. 5:23-33. 

In these special relations to God we are to serve 
Him as His j)eculiar and purified people, in our 
growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Christ 
and in saving souls. By reading, studying and heed- 
ing the Word and by prayer, we shall be led by the 
Spirit into a full consecration. Remember, the church 
of God,^ — the bride of Christ, — has no right to be any- 
thing else than consecrated fully to His service. 



FOE THE INQUIRY ROOM. 57 



CHAPTER XII. 

WITNESSING FOR CHRIST. 

We have tried in the light of the Woid to obtain a 
correct nnderstanding of such of its teachings as will 
enable us to intelligently meet the wants of the in- 
quirer. We shall now turn our attention more di- 
rectly to the w^ay of getting at the hearts of those 
with, whom we have to deal. In the first x:)la;ce, then, 
what is our position before God in relation to the work 
of saving souls ^ i^cts 1:8, ''But ye shall receive 
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come ux)on you : 
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, 
and in all Judjea, and in Samaria, and unto the utter- 
most part of the earth." John If): 27, "And ye also 
sliall bear witness, because ye have been w itli me from 
the beginning." According to the statement of these 
texts, the Master gave to His disciples the office of a 
witness. We are to stand in the relation of witnesses 
before God to the unsaved. 

1. What are the necessary qualifications for a wit- 
ness ( Personal knowledge of the facts concerning 
which we are to witness. AVhat are the facts i "And 
ye also shall bear witness of ?yie,'' said Christ. But 
you and I have never seen the Christ as His disciples 
saw Him. How, then, can w^e testify of Him ^ Though 
we have never seen Him with the physical eye as John 
records, (I John 1:1-3) yet w^e who are His can testify 
of His power to save the soul from sin ; we have seen 



58 HINTS AND HELPS 

Him with eyes that are spiritual. We are to testify 
concerning the facts of the Gospel as they have been 
demonstrated to lis in our lives. The essential quali- 
fication, then, for a witness nnto Christ, is a personal 
knowledge of the facts concerning which we are called 
to testify. This necessitates a personal revelation of 
Christ to us in conversion. Unless you have been 
saved, and realize that you have passed from death 
unto life, you can not bear witness unto Christ with 
power. That which is demanded of you as a witness 
in a civil court is also demanded of you as a witness 
to the Gospel, namely, a knowledge of the facts. 

2. How are we to witness? In our lives. Matt. 
5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they 
may see your good works, and glorify your Father 
which is in heaven." Matt. 7:50, "Wherefore by 
their fruits ye shall know them.'' It would be useless 
for you to testify concerning the power of any physi- 
cal remedy, unless you had yourself been saved by 
that remedy. Suppose you were to go through the 
country, testifying to the power of a certain remedy 
to cure paralysis, while your own arm hung lifeless by 
your side from that same disease. "Physician, heal 
thyself ! ' ' would be the cry of the populace. "So first 
of all we are to testify by our own transfigured lives, 
to the transforming power of the Gospel. It has been 
said that every minister's life is the introduction to 
his sermon ; so your life will be the chief argument as 
a witness to Christ. 

3. "But my life was a wretched failure until the 
Master saved me, must I wait for the years to pass, 
before I can testify of that poAver ? Must I wait until 
the whole world can see in a period of time that there 
has been a transformation?" JSTo ! Suppose Peter 
had waited until a year or more had passed after 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 59 

he had denied his Lord, before he had testified to 
the power of Christ to save, he woiikl never have 
preached that Pentecostal sermon, through the agency 
of which so many Avere saved. The longer the time 
which transpires after your conversion and through 
which you stand faithful the greater will be your influ- 
ence among the unsaved. But begin at once, by word 
of mouth, to bear witness unto Christ. We are to 
testify with our lips as well as by our lives. Ps. 51: 
15, "0 Lord, open thou my lips ; and my mouth shall 
show forth thy praise." Matt. 10:32, "Whosoever 
therefore shall confess me before men, him will I con- 
fess also before my Father which is in heaven." The 
very word translated witness, in the two passages 
of Scripture quoted at the beginning of this chapter, 
is a word borrowed from the old Grreek court, 
where witnesses were to testify by word of mouth con- 
cerning things which they knew. Let us not think 
that it is sufl[icient to testify by our lives. If the 
Christ is in our hearts with power, the lips must be 
forced apart. 

4. In what way are we to bear testimony \ It is not 
sufficient to testify concerning the power of the Gos- 
pel, in a general way, of its influence in the advance- 
ment of civilization, of the elevating power of the 
church in society. All this is well in its place, but 
make your message deflnite and personal : what Christ 
has done for you, what Christ will do for the sinner. 
When inviting the sinner to Christ, do not think you 
have done your duty by inviting him to church. In- 
vite him to come to Christ. 

5. To whom shall we bear witness ? At Acts 1:8, we 
read ''both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Sa- 
maria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 
Here w^e And at least two things taught : the place and 



60 HINTS AND HELPS 

the order. The disciples were to bear witness unto 
Christ at home, and in the neighboring countries, and 
then unto the uttermost part of the earth. No posi- 
tion in any country, be it at home or in foreign lands 
was to exempt them from the office and duty of a wit- 
ness. Again (in this connection see Luke 24:47), they 
were to begin at Jerusalem, then carry the Gospel 
message into all Judsea, then into Samaria, and from 
thence the world over. One other thought in this con- 
nection. The Samaritans were the deadly enemies of 
the Jews, but sucli enmity was to be no barrier and no 
excuse for the disciples not to carry the Grospel thither. 
Here we have our directions. We are to testify of 
Christ at home, among our neighbors, to our enemies, 
and wherever Grod in His providence may call us ; no 
place, however remote, exempts us from the office of a 
witness. The order which we should follow in oar 
work is plain. First, the unsaved of our households, 
then those intimately connected with us by ties of 
friendshij:) or place, then among all people with whom 
we are brought in contact. Then ' ' why stand ye here 
all the day idle ? ' ' The harvest is great, the laborers 
are few. IS'ot only pray the Lord of the harvest' to 
send forth laborers into the harvest but go thou, and 
bear witness unto the Christ. II Cor. 3:5, ''Not that 
we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of 
ourselves : but our sufficiency is of God." 



^On THE INQUIRY ROOM. 61 



CHAPTER XITL 

ENDUEMENT OF POWER. 

Into this great Avork for the Master we are not to go 
alone. In the commission given in Matt. 28:20, we 
read, ' ' Lo, I am with you alway, even nnto the end of 
the world." At John 14:23, "If a man love me, he 
will keep my words : and my Father Avill love him, 
and we Avill come unto him and make our abode 
with him.'' As we think of the greatness of the work 
and the hardness of the sinner' s heart, Ave Avonder Iioav 
it Avill be i^ossible to lead sncli to Christ. There is a 
special fitting for this AA'ork implied in the Master s 
promise of His presence ; namely, the endiiement of 
poAA er. At Luke 24:4y, we read how Christ command- 
ed His disciples that they should not depart out of 
Jerusalem on their mission of AAitnessing for Him, 
until this special enduement came upon them: "But 
tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued 
with power from on high." Again at Acts 1:4, 8, we 
read that they should Avait for the promise of the 
Father, and that they should receive poAver after that 
the Holy Ghost came uj^on them. Turning to John 
14:12, we read the astonishing x)romise : "Verily, ver- 
ily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the Avorks 
that I do shall he do also ; and greater Avorks than 
these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father." 
Turning noAv to Acts 2:32, 33, we read, from the won- 
derful Pentecostal sermon of Peter, Iioav it is possible 
for the discii^le to do more works than his Master. 



69 HINTS AT^B HELPS 

Peter says, ' ' This Jesus liath God raised up, whereof 
we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right 
hand of God exalted, and having received of the 
Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed 
forth this, which ye now see and hear." It was be- 
cause of the exaltation of Christ that the descent of 
the Holv Ghost came, and because of the descent of 
the Holy Ghost, the enduement of power upon the 
disciples, and because of the enduement, it became 
possible for the disciples to do greater works than did 
Jesus. Tbe disciples won more for the Master on the 
day of Pentecost than He did in His life. 

Let us examine a little more closely into the charac- 
ter of this enduement of power. 

1. It is not a special endowment. There is a vast 
diiference between an enduement and an endowment. 
Our endowments God has given us in the natural way 
at birth, and we have developed them more or less ac- 
cording to our efforts in this direction. But the en- 
duement is a special gift from above. The word itself 
signifies " to be clothed in." " Tarry ye in the city of 
Jerusalem, until ye be clothed in power from on high." 
An external power by which our natural endowments 
are made effective. So that it is no excuse for anyone 
not to witness for Christ, because he has not the en- 
dowments of some one else. Let him ask God for the 
enduement and he will outdo ' ' for His sake ' ' the most 
brilliantly endowed without it. 

2. The word "power" in Acts 1:8, comes from a 
word which signifies "to be able," it means ability. 
No doubt, as Christ toward thelatter part of His life, 
unfolded the greatness of the work which lay before 
the eleven, and that He should not be present with 
them as He was then, that they exclaimed, " Who is 
sufficient for these things T ' " But the work that I do 



¥0U THE INQUIRY ROOM. 63 

ye shall do also, and even greater works than these shall 
ye do, for ye shall receive the ability to do them, after 
that the Holy Ghost is come upon yon. Indeed, it is 
expedient that I go away, for if I go not away the 
Holy Ghost will not come uj^on you, for it is only on 
my exaltation at the right hand of the Father that 
the Holy Ghost will come with power. So tarry ye in 
the city of Jerusalem, after my ascension, until ye be 
clothed in this ability.'' 

"But I am so weak I can not work even with this 
ability." Turning to II Cor. 12:9, we read, " For my 
strength is made perfect in weakness." The word 
translated "strength" here is from the same word 
from which comes the word "power" in Acts 1:8, so 
that you can read ' ' For my ability is made perfect in 
weakness." The enduement of power may be defined 
as the presence of the personal Holy Sj^irit, working 
in conjunction with the witnesser unto Christ, and fur- 
nishing the message with power. I Cor. 3*: 9, "For 
we are laborers together with God." 

Let us notice some of the offices of the Holy Spirit, 
that we may see the more clearly how He aids us as 
witnesses unto Christ. We will pass by the offices of 
the Holy Spirit in ai)plying the work of redemption 
to the sinner, and notice how He complements our 
work in witnessing of Christ to the sinner. 

1. It is His office also to witness of Christ. John 
15:26, ''But when the Comforter is come, whom I will 
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of 
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall tes- 
tify of me.'' Whenever you go on an errand of wit- 
nessing for the Master, know that the Holy Si3irit has 
gone before you, and is with you testifying of Him. 

2. It is His office to convince the world of sin. John 
16:8, "And when he is come, he will reprove the world 



64 HINTS AND HELPS 

of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." It is 
not stated that you are to convince the world of sin, 
that is His worl^. You may present the truth, or the 
Spirit may work through you, — the means, — but He 
wall not leave you to convince men of sin : He is here 
for that purpose. 

3. He is here to reveal the truth unto us more and 
more. John 14:26, "But the Comforter, which is the 
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, 
he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to 
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 
John 16:13, 14, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of 
truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth : for he 
will not speak of himself ; but whatsoever he shall 
hear, that shall he speak : and he will shew you things 
to come. He shall glorify me : for he shall receive of 
mine, and shall shew it unto you." 

4. He is to furnish you with the ability to do your 
work. Luke 24:49 ; Acts 1:8. Not with the ability 
which you have, or can have of yourselves, but the 
Divine ability which is necessary to make the best 
there is of you effective. 

5. He gives us courage. Acts 4:13. 

Note first, The promise of this enduement is to all 
who believe. Acts 2:39 ; 5:32. 

Note second. The willingness of the Father to be- 
stow it. Luke 11:13. 

Note third, We can do nothing without it. John 
15:5. 

Note four(]h, With it we can do greater works than 
did Christ. John 14:12. 

Then ' ' tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye 
be endued wdth power from on high." 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 65 



CHAPTER Xiy. 

THOUGHTS ON INQUIRY WORK. 

Being now somewhat familiar with those teach- 
ings of the Word which are essential for dealing 
understandingiy with the inquirer, let us notice a few 
things relative to this work. 

First of all, as to the necessary qualifications and 
instruments, a portion of which have already been no- 
ticed or implied in the preceding chapters. 

1. A knowledge of your own conversion. 

2. A sufficiently clear understanding of the Word as 
shall enable you to have a clear idea of its most j)rac- 
tical and primary teachings. 

3. A sufficiently clear understanding of the Word 
in relation to the needs of the inquirer. 

4. A Bible with which you are so familiar that you 
can turn rapidly to those passages necessary to meet 
the immediate demands of the inquirer. 

5. The enduement of power. 

6. A pencil and card with which you can take down 
the address of the person with whom you are dealing, 
for future reference. Be very careful about this, how- 
ever. Do not let them think that all you care for, is 
to add one more name to the list of those with whom 
you have dealt. When you ask for an address be 
sure you make the purpose for which it is taken, 
plain. 



66 HINTS AND HELPS 

The following is a specimen of tlie card generally 
used : 



JYame^, 

Address, 

Church Preference, 
Remarks, 



When asking for the church preference, be sure you 
convey the correct idea that you wish it, that vou 
may place them under a pastor' s care, and not that 
they must join the church. 

Thus equipped, you are ready for the work. 

Second, The nature of the inquiry meeting. The 
inquiry meeting is usually held after some popular 
gospel service. Be present at such service, and keep 
praying that God will arouse the unconverted. After 
the popular service is over, invite all you can to go 
into the inquiry room, especially such as may show 
some signs of being moved by the sermon. Better be 
sure, however, of getting one into the inquiry meeting 
than not sure of many. When in the inquiry room, 
find some one you think you can reach. If there are 
two or more unconverted sitting side by side, get the 
one with whom you desire to talk, separate from the 
rest if possible, by taking him to some unoccupied 
place, where you can converse with him alone. Find 
out just what his difficulty is. Then be ready as the 
case is stated, to a|)ply the Word understandingly. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 67 

Be as wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves. Do 
not quote the passages, unless you see you can not 
find them, but turn to them and let him read them 
for himself. ]N"ever leave the person with whom you 
are in conversation, without praying with him, if it 
be possible. Always have him pray, if only to rej)eat 
a short prayer after you, as, ' ' God be merciful to me 
a sinner." On leaving him, take his name and 
address, and tell him you will pray for him as you go 
home, and have him promise to pray for himself. 

Be patient. Remember that eternal destinies are in 
your hands. Do not argue, but be ready with a ' ' thus 
saith the Lord." The more you argue with most 
inquirers, the more difficult it will be to reach them, 
as it is the devil' s way of fortifying them in error. 
"If they hear not Moses and the prophets," etc. 
Luke 16:81. The main point for you to look after, is 
to get the inquirer to decide for Christ. Do not leave 
him without such a decision being made if possible. 

If you can not find any unconverted one with 
whom to converse, sit down and pray that God will 
give light and power to those who have been more suc- 
cessful in finding some one with whom to deal. Above 
all things, in such a place, do not talk with Christians 
who are idle like yourself, about anything but Christ 
and the work. 

Remember, you are standing in Christ' s' stead, to do 
His work, (II Cor. 5:20,) and that your efficiency is of 
God. II Cor., 3:5, 6. 

Si3ecial qualifications for the work : 

1. Faith. Matt. 9:2. 

2. Courage. Joshua 1:8. 

3. Enthusiasm. Gal. 4:18. 

4. Love. Ps. 51:1 ; John 3:16. 

5. Compassion and sympathy. Matt. 9:36. 



68 HINTS AKD HELPS 

How to meet the unconverted : 

1. Personally and privately. Examples : Christ 
with Nicodemus, and the woman of Samaria. John 
3rd and 4th chapters. Philip with the eunuch. Acts 
8:26-40. 

2. Keep at it. Luke 11:5-10; 18:1-7. 

3. Get close to the sinner. Contrast, Matt. 8:1-3, 
with Mark. 10:49. 

Give the inquirer some passage of Scripture to read 
suitable to his case, before you leave him. " He that 
winneth souls is wise." 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 69 



CHAPTER XY. 

CLASSES OF INQUIRERS. 
DOUBTING CHRISTIANS AND BACKSLIDERS. 

While thf^re are very many classes of inquirers which 
you will meet in the inquiry room, nearly all of them 
will come in one or more of the following five classes, 
namely, doubting Christians, backsliders, those not 
thoroughly convinced, those thoroughly convinced, 
the honest skeptic. 

With the first class mentioned we have already 
pointed out the course to be adopted, in the chapter 
on Assurance, so we will pass at once to the second 
class, backsliders. At Jer. 2:5, we read "Thus saith 
the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in 
me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked 
after vanity r' At Is. 59:1, 2, "Behold, the Lord's 
hand is not shortened, that it can not save ; neither 
his ear heavy, that it can not hear : but your iniqui- 
ties have separated between you and your God, and 
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will 
not hear." It seems unnecessary to make the state- 
ment, and yet over and over again, you will have to 
direct the backslider to the fact that his cold religious 
state is due entirely to himself. The above tests will 
render the statement emphatic. His iniquities and 
his sins have come between him and his God. At 
Mai. 3:10, we find the remedy: "Bring ye all the 
tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in 



70 HINTS AND HELPS 

mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the 
Lord ot* hosts, if I will not open you the windows of 
heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall 
not be room enough to receive it." He has been rob- 
bing God of his tithes in some way, and just as soon as 
those tithes are restored to the storehouse of God, the 
blessing wdll be forth-coming. What are the tithes, 
and how shall they be brought ? Remember you are 
dealing with one of God's children who has gone astray, 
and he needs different treatment than an unconverted 
person. At I John 1:9, we read, "If w^e confess 
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 
and •to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This 
text was written to those who had made a jDrofession 
of religion. It was the rule John gave for getting 
back to God, — to confess our sins. At Jer. 3:13, we 
read, "Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou 
hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast 
scattered thy w^ays to the strangers under every green 
tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord." 
So we see that John was only quoting the direction 
given by God to His people in Old Testament times, — 
to confess the sins, and acknowledge the iniquities, 
which have separated between us and our God. At 
Rev. 2:1-7, we read the message to the church of Eph- 
esus which had left its first love. At verse ^ve we 
read the direction given for their return, ' ' Repent, ' ' 
i. e., turn from your transgressions toward God, "and 
do the first works." We can sum up the above testi- 
mony in three words, — repentance, confession, works. 
Whenever the backslider is ready to comply with the 
above direction, God is more than ready to receive 
him, for at Mai. 3:10, He says, "Prove me now here- 
with, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you 
the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 71 

that there shall not be room enough to receive it." 
At Jer. 31:3, ''Yea, I have loved thee with an ever- 
lasting love : therefore with lovingkindness have I 
drawn thee.'' At Jer. 29:13, " And ye shall seek me, 
and hnd me, when ye shall search for me with all your 
heart. ' ' For the process in coming back to God, read 
the iifty-first Psalm ; and in Luke 15, the story of the 
return of the prodigal. In the return of the i)rodigal, 
you will perceive Grod's willingness to forgive the 
wanderer, in that the father ran to meet him. The 
cause for the backslidden state of every wanderer, 
may be stated under two general heads ; first, sins of 
omission ; second, sins of commission. A failure to 
do to the works which are the means of christian 
growth, and an active continued transgression of Grod' s 
law. 

1. Sins of omission. At conversion, under the im- 
pulse of the new life, the convert is often zealous of 
good works, he is much in prayer, gives his testimony 
at every opportunity, reads his Bible, establishes fam- 
ily worshix3, and becomes a missionary of the cross in 
trying to save his friends and neighbors. But when 
the first impulse of the new life is past, he gradually 
leaves these various lines of christian activity, and 
finally is no more active than before his conversion, 
and his old sinful life returns. This ]3rocess is seldom 
swift, nearly always gradual. 

Now what is the remedy '( If the only difficulty is 
a neglect of duty, let the duties be taken up where 
they were laid down. Confess your negligence before 
Grod and the people, and begin the work anew. That 
is the way to get the tithes into the storehouse, and 
the blessings of Heaven will surely follow. 

There is a large class of people who accept Christ, 
but never become active. The only way for such to 



72 HINTS AND HELPS 

get an experimental love of God, is to follow out the 
leading of the Spirit in the way of christian activities. 

2. Sins of commission. The young convert starts 
out with the idea never to sin. The determination is 
good, but under some temptation, sin against Grod is 
committed, discouragement follows, and the battle is 
given up. The failure is quite liable to be along the 
line of the old besetting sin. As an illustration, often 
bl*ought before us in the lives of hundreds, take that 
of the reformed drunkard. He stands well for a sea- 
son, but under some strong temptation of the devil, 
often through some old unconverted associate who 
should have been forsaken as an associate, he falls in- 
to his old sin. When he comes to himself he becomes 
discouraged, and instead of confessing his fault and 
fleeing to the Refuge of the tempted, he forsakes the 
active service of the Master and becomes worse than 
ever. 

What is the remedy here % We have already pointed 
it out. It lies along the avenue of these words, repent- 
ance, confession and works. He must turn from his 
transgressions again, toward God, make a confession 
of his sins, and begin anew the activities of a chris- 
tian life. 

Yery many begin their backsliding by wronging a 
neighbor when under some provocatiop.. To such, 
bring up the idea of restitution. This is brought out 
in Ex. 22 ; Matt. 5:23, 24 ; 6:14, 15. The wrong may 
have been done in one way, and it may have been done 
in another, but in whatsoever way the wrong has been 
done, in just that way must it be righted, before there 
can be experienced again the favor of God. Some- 
times such restitution is not in the present power of 
the transgressor, but let him show his willingness by 
making confession of his wrong, and then whenever 



FOE THE INQUIKY ROOM. 73 

complete restitution becomes possible, let it be made. 
Confession of our faults should always be made to 
God first of all, and then, if the faults have been pub- 
lic, the confessien should also be public, but if the 
faults have been private, let the confession be private. 
And through the avenue of repentance, confession 
and doing the works of the Christian, we shall receive 
the kiss of forgiveness and the blessing of God. "O 
Israel, return unto the Lord thy God ; for thou hast 
fallen by thine iniquity. I will heal their backslid- 
ing, I will love them freely : for mine anger is turned 
away from him.'' Hosea 14:1,4. 



74 HINTS AND HELPS 



CHAPTER XVI. 

TO THOSE NOT THOEOUGHLY CONVINCED. 

It is well to bear in mind in dealing with those not 
fully convinced, that they need, and ought to 
seek, the Saviour at once. That in reality the number 
of those who can be said rightly to come under this 
head, and whom you will succeed in getting into the 
inquiry room, is comparatively small ; while those 
who will profess to be not thoroughly convinced will 
be much larger. It is one of Satan's most seductive 
methods to make the inquirer think that he is not 
sufficiently convinced tnat he is a sinner and that he 
needs salvation. The chief difficulty with this class 
is that they are putting the motive for moving toward 
God on the wrong ground, namely, that of feeling 
instead of oughtness. They have heard some one re- 
late his experience in which mention has been made 
of some terrible burden and an awful struggle to get 
into the light of Gfod ; the^^ think that some such bur- 
den and struggle is necessary. This is a real diffi- 
culty, and how shall it be met % In the first place it is 
well to get the proper motive for seeking salvation 
before the inquirer. It is not because there may or 
may not be any weight of feeling this way or that, but 
because it is right and God demands it. There is no 
man but knows and feels that he ought to do right. 
If he be convinced that it is right for him to seek his 
salvation, he is sufficientlv convicted of sin and con- 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 75 

vinced of his duty. Make it clear to him that repent- 
ance does not consist in feeling, but in action, — turn- 
ing away from sin toward God. The feelings will be 
more or less involved, but sorrow for sin alone is not 
repentance ; one may have such sorrow for a life-time, 
and if it do not lead to ' ' turning from sin to God, ' ' 
he will go down to the grave unsaved. Then show 
him that the manly way is to do right whether 
we feel like it or not. I remember a certain 
young man, who is now a faithful minister of 
the gospel, sitting night after night through almost an 
entire series of meetings. Whenever he was ap- 
proached and asked to seek the Lord, he invariably 
responded, "I do not feel like it." One night in the 
midst of an inquiry meeting he arose and said, "I have 
been waiting for many days for a sufficient amount of 
feeling to cause me to seek the Lord. I do not feel 
any more like it tonight than I did at hrst, but I know 
it is right and I am going to walk out on my manli- 
ness and serve the Lord, and let the feelings go." Of 
course he found Christ, and he has ever been His 
steadfast follower. It is always manly to do right. 
It is right to seek God. It is the only way. Turn 
toward Him because you ought. Use the passages 
already given under Faith and Repentance to prove 
the above points. A good illustration of this is the 
prodigal son. " I will arise and go to my father." 

The above method or something parallel, you can 
use with such as think they are not fully convinced, 
but are really waiting for feeling. A few skillful 
questions will reveal the fact. But you will meet 
some who are willing to converse with you, but who 
are, as far as you can see, entirely unmoved, and 
unconvinced of their duty in seeking Christ. Right 
at this point there are three passages which you must 



76 HINTS AI^D HELPS 

bear in mind : John 16:8 ; Heb. 4:12 ; Luke 13:31. 
All you can do is to apply the Word, and leave the 
result with God. I know of no better passage in deal- 
ing with this class and no one which furnishes less 
ground for objection than Rev. 21:27, "And there 
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, 
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh 
a lie : but they which are written in the Lamb' s book 
of life." The majority of people, at least of those 
outside the ark of safety, associate salvation with 
gaining Heaven. A correct idea of the character of 
Heaven and the necessity of conforming with it, that 
it may be experienced, will throw much light on many 
of the doctrines of Scripture. The character of 
Heaven is that of absolute purity, and into that holy 
Heaven nothing of sin can enter. If we have sin in 
our hearts we cannot enter there, for without holiness 
no man shall see the Lord. — Heb. 12:14. We are all 
sinners (Rom. 3:23,) and, therefore, none of us can 
enter Heaven without being made pure. God' s good- 
ness or His love can not place us in a holy Heaven 
without our being made absolutely pure in heart. We 
can not do this work (Prov. 20:9). The question is 
not ' ' Are you a great sinner f ' If your heart is in 
any degree sinful, you can not enter Heaven. Its 
character would soon be changed if you should. The 
only way to perpetuate Heaven is that this require- 
ment shall be rigidly enforced. All our efforts alone 
are unavailing to meet the demands of that Heaven 
(Is. 64:6), but God, in His great love for us, has pro- 
vided a way of escape from sin, and of preparation 
for Heaven. In John 3:3-5, 7, He says we must be 
born again, i. e. we must have a change of heart. 
What other way could there be of our entering 
Heaven ? and how entirely reasonable ! At Ez, 36:25, 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 77 

26, we read tlie promise concerning the new lieart and 
what it means. Because we are all sinners we need 
just this, and God in His great love for us has pro- 
vided it. All He asks of us is that we turn from all 
our transgressions to Him, and yield ourselves to Him 
that He may purify us. That is just the meaning of 
Mark 1:15, " Repent ye, and believe the gospel." He 
asks this of us because He can not purify us except 
we "repent and believe." If we will meet these 
demands, He can and will transform us by regenera- 
tion and sanctification, so that when we come to enter 
the gateway of Heaven we shall be permitted to enter, 
although ' ' there shall in no wise enter into it anything 
that defileth." If the inquirer is not suihciently con- 
vinced of the fact that he is a sinner, let the Word 
flash the truth upon him at Jer. 17:9 ; Mark 7:21-23 ; 
Gal. 5:19-21. These are pen pictures of the natural 
heart as seen by the Holy Spirit. Always emphasize 
over against these pen pictures the demands made 
upon us, 

By the character of heaven. Rev. 21:27 ; 

By the character of God, Hab. 1:13 ; 

By the character of the ten commandments as 
summed u]3 by Christ, Matt. 5:48. 

Then turn to John 1:29, ''Behold the Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the world." On leaving 
such an inquirer, if you have not brought him to a 
decision, gain a promise from him if you can, that he 
will read a certain portion of Scripture (to which you 
will call his attention), and pray for himself when he 
reaches his room. Rom. 1:18-32, John 5, and Matt. 5, 
are good selections for this purjDose. 



78 HIKTS AKD HELPS 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THOSE FULLY CONVINCED. 

It is most refreshing to sit by the side of an inquirer 
who is fully convinced that he is a sinner and that he 
needs the Saviour, and who is determined to give him- 
self to Him. To make him see Christ is the great 
point. Sometimes the way is very easy. By a little 
conversation you see that the person with whom you 
are dealing needs but little direction. He has already 
yielded his will, and all he needs is a confession of 
Christ, to go on his way rejoicing. Turning to I Peter 
2:24, point out that our sins are already laid on Christ, 
and that He will answer for them. Then to John 3: 
36, or 5:24, or 6:47, and point out that by believing on 
Christ, and not by any effort of our own, we have 
everlasting life. Then pray with him and have him 
pray for himself, and if the opportunity is given, have 
him confess Christ. Sometimes in just the act of con- 
fessing Christ, the joy of Heaven enters into the soul. 
Before you leave him be sure you give him some suit- 
able Scripture to read, as the 103d Psalm, or Luke 15, 
or John 3, or Isa. 53. 

Very often you will find among this class those who, 
while they have seemingly yielded their will, do not 
catch a glimpse of their Saviour. I have met more 
than one in the inquiry room, who have been sincerely 
seeking Christ, and yet had not seemingly found Him. 
Turn to Luke 19:10, and point out the fact that th« 



FOB THE INQUIRY ROOM. 79 

Son of man came to seek and to save that which was 
lost, and that He has been seeking them all their lives, 
and that He certainly will not forsake them when 
they turn to Him. The difficulty, for the mosc part, 
with this class is, they do not understand, first, how 
salvation is obtained, and second, how they obtain the 
evidence of their conversion. So, having shown them 
that the Son of man is seeking them, and consequent- 
ly they are not forsaken, turn to John 3:16 and let 
them read it. Then ask them if God does not mean 
what He says ; if they are not a part of the world ; 
why He gave His only begotten Son, "that whoso- 
ever believeth on him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life ;" if they are not of the ""whosoever." 
Then have them read the text, putting in their names 
in place of the words "world" and "whosoever," i. e. 
if the name of the inquirer should be Marshall Green, 
he would read the text, ' ' For God so loved Marshall 
Green that lie sent his only begotten Son, that Mar- 
shall Green, believing on him, should not perish but 
have everlasting life." This makes the text as defi- 
nite as it would have been if there had been no one 
but Marshall Green in the world. Point out that the 
only condition given upon which is based everlasting 
life, is the one of believing, and if he is believing on 
Him he has a right to claim it. Very often by this 
simple process, I have seen the light of Heaven come 
into the countenance as the mind grasped the good 
new^s, that Christ died for the inquirer personally, be- 
cause God loved him personally, and that he might 
have everlasting life. 

But the trouble is not so often a failure to grasp the 
fact that salvation is obtained by simply believing, as 
a wrong conception of how the knowledge of their 
being saved is obtained. They have heard some per- 



80 HINTS AND HELPS 

sons relating their experience at conversion, tell about 
the wonderful light that came into the soul and the 
great change experienced ; they have been looking for 
just such an experience. To only a few does such an 
experience come at conversion : to the majority the 
inner light comes like the dawning of the day, but in 
every instance the revelation by way of an inner ex- 
perience comes through believing on Christ. Teach 
them to look away from their feelings to Christ. 
Show them that already they have a witness of their 
acceptance in the Word if they are believing on Christ. 
Tui'n to John 3:36, and let them read " He that believ- 
eth on the Son hath everlasting life. " It is by believ- 
ing and not by feeling, that they have a knowledge of 
their salvation. By believing on Christ they have sal- 
vation ; by believing His word they have assurance. 
It is faith all around. Turn to John 5:24, and let them 
read it emphasizing that he that believeth hath ever- 
lasting life, shall not come into condemnation, is 
passed from death unto life. The fact of how we are 
saved by faith, is brought out in the following illus- 
tration. You are on the ocean. In the middle of the 
night some one comes to your cabin and tells you the 
ship is on fire, that the life-boat is being lowered, and 
if you w^ll arise and come to the boat you will be 
saved. Suppose you believe the messenger, what is 
the result ? You immediately arise and flee to the boat 
and are taken in it from the burning ship and are 
saved. But if you disbelieve the messenger and the 
message, you will lie still and perish. In case you 
believed the message you would be saved by the life- 
boat, through faith in the message and through faith 
in the boat. Such a fact might be chronicled in the 
next morning paper in this language : "A friend so 
loved A, B. as to risk his life in going through the 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 81 

burning ship to A. B.'& cabin door to warn him of his 
peril, that A. B., believing him and his message, might 
be saved." Now how does the case stand in regard to 
our salvation from sin ? We are lost ; God alone can 
save us ; He has sent His Son to save us ; the messen- 
ger has come to our door ; we have been warned of 
our danger, and the way of escape has been pointed 
out : now he that believeth the ixiessage and the mes- 
senger, will arise, and turn from his danger tow^ard 
deliverance (that is repentance), and he will trust Him 
who is the deliverer, and who alone can save (that is 
faith). Faith saves us in the one instance as well 
as in the other. It is faith that causes us to flee 
from the burning ship and trust the life-boat for deliv- 
erance ; it is faith which causes us to flee from the 
wrath to come, and to trust Christ for deliverance. It 
is faith which causes us to trust the life-boat, it is the 
life-boat which saves; it is faith which causes us to 
lean on Christ, it is Christ who saves. Unbelief would 
cause us to perish in the one case,, so also it is unbelief 
which causes us to perish in the other. 

The way is easy. 

We are in the ship ; 

The ship is on fire ; 

The hfe-boat is at hand ; 

A messenger comes and tells us of the circumstance; 

We believe him ; 

We flee to the life -boat ; 

We trust it and are saved. 

Faith in the messenger or message, — not feeling, — 
causes us to flee for safety. Faith, — not feeling, — 
causes us to trust the life-boat for salvation. The 
greater our faith in the power of the life-boat to deliv- 
er us, the greater our joy when in it. 

We are in sin ; 

Christ, our salvation, is at hand ; 



82 HINTS AND HELPS 

The messenger comes and tells us the circumstance; 

We flee to Christ ; 

We trust Him and are saved. 

Faith, — not feeling, — causes us to trust Christ for 
salvation. The greater our faith in the power of 
Christ to deliver us, the greater our joy. Action, sal- 
vation, assurance, are the results of faith. Unbelief 
in either case would prove disaster. Some such illus- 
tration as the above will give the convinced sinner a 
correct idea of how faith saves and how it gives assur 
ance. 

Often you will find among this class those who real- 
ize their sinfulness so much as to lead them to doubt 
the willingness, if not the ability, of Christ to save 
them. Here your Bible has a wealth of passages to 
meet the objection, with which you must make your- 
self familiar The application of these passages is 
very easily seen. I will simply indicate them. 

Ps. 103:11, Mercy outmeasures sin. 

Eom. 5:20, Grace is greater than sin. 

I Peter 2:21:, Sin is laid on Christ. 

Ps. 103:12, The measure of the removal of sin. 

Is. 1:18, Scarlet and crimson, hard colors to remove. 

Is. 3Y:1Y, Sin cast behind Grod. 

Is. 43:25, Blotted out and not remembered. 

Is. 41:22, A cloud dissipated can not be found. 

Mic. 7:18, 19, Pardoned, passed by, cast into the 
depths of the sea. Not depths of a river that will dry 
up, but into the sea that never dries up. 

Heb. 7:12, Forgotten. 

Grod could say nothing more than He has said to the 
sinner, that He saves to the uttermost all that come 
unto Him through Christ. Heb. 7:25. 

"Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast 
out." John 6:37. 



FOR THE IICQUIRY ROOM. 83 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

THE HONEST SKEPTIC. 

There is a large number of professing skeptics in the 
world ; — men who profess to disbelieve almost every- 
thing a Christian believes. They are divided natu- 
rally into two classes : — those who are sincere in their 
skepticism, and those who are insincere. The former 
are seeking after tnith ; the latter for self- vindication, 
for an excuse to continue in sin, or for notoriety. The 
sincere skeptic you can reach by proper reasoning and 
the AVord ; the insincere, seldom if ever ; it needs 
some special dispensation of Providence. Often in 
the inquiry room you will meet the insincere skeptic, 
who is present for the sake of argument and for show- 
ing his knowledge (always borrowed from Celsus, 
Paine and Co.). It is scarcely to any purpose what- 
ever to converse with this class. You can soon find 
them out, and when you have, the best thing you can 
do is to leave them with some sharp text of Scripture, 
like John 3:18-20, and perhaps a brief prayer. You 
can easily drop your head and ofl'er a short prayer that 
God will open their eyes, and then, find some one who 
is willing to listen to you. Above all things, never 
show the least impatience. 

You will find sometimes those who are honestly 
skeptical and sincere in their views. These can often%- 
be reached. I look back over a record of ten years' 
work for the Master, and find many of this class whom 
God has permitted me to lead into the light. The first 



84 tliNTS AIS-D HELPS 

step to take is to get them alone by themselves. If 
you do not, the temptation will be very great for them 
to show off their skepticism and attempt to silence yon 
before their companions. Alone, this temptation will 
be greatly lessened. Often after a short conversation, 
yon will see that yon can not accomplish very much at 
one meeting. If such be the case and yon are so sit- 
uated as to make it possible, make an appointment to 
meet them at their own rooms, or your room, at some 
time in the immediate future, then give them some 
suitable scripture to read, and if you can, offer a short 
prayer with them that Grod may show them the error 
of their reasoning. Do not expect to accomplish every- 
thing in a moment. I remember one such case which 
took me three or four months to reach, and another 
one which took me over a year. But the results would 
have been worth every effort, though it had taken ten 
times the time. Go at the time appointed, praying 
for divine wisdom. There is in every instance a reason 
of some character and depth for skepticism. Often it 
comes from inattention to the Word. Many times, 
from a misconception of the Bible's demands upon us 
that salvation may be obtained, and such misconcep- 
tion arises often from the complicated creeds of differ- 
ing denominations ; — often from the effects of Chris- 
tianity, judged from the imperfect life of some weak 
Christian or hypocrite. The first thing to find out is 
the reason from which springs his skepticism. Probe 
for this. It will come to the surface in conversation. 
If he is disposed to do the talking, let him talk. In 
the meantime listen, that yoii may discover the true 
difficulty ; and keep praying that God will aid you. 
Remember, that there is very often but one principal 
difficulty, although the skeptics may state several. It 
is useless for you to attempt, or to expect to answer 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 85 

them all, but "watch and pray " that you may discover 
the real difficulty, and when you have met that, yon 
have met them all. Another thing to be kept in mind 
is, that the skeptic himself may not know what the 
real reason for his skepticism is. When you have 
reached the difficulty, meet it, if possible, by calling 
his attention to himself and to the Word, — to himself 
that he may lose sight of all grossly imperfect or 
hyX)ocritical Christians ; to the Word that he may be 
convinced by it of his own duty. 

I can best bring out what I mean and the way to 
accomplish the work, by a leaf from my own experi- 
ence. When supx^lying a church in one of the north- 
ern counties of the state of New York, I met a physi- 
cian who was a notorious skeptic. He was upwards 
of seventy years of age, and had practiced medicine 
in that region successfully for over forty years. A 
grand man as the world goes, with no outbreaking 
vices. When I first went into that section he was 
pointed out to me as an Ingersol infidel. I soon met 
him and learned to love him. I immediately began to 
pray that God would teach me how I might bring him 
to Him. In conversation with him subsequently I 
found out his difficulty. It was ignorance of the 
Word and a confused idea of God's demands u^^on 
him, through certain misunderstood church creeds. 
Although well read in his own yjrofession, he knew 
scarcely anything about the Bible. The way to pro- 
ceed in his case seemed plain. 

1. Show him how little he knew of the Scriptures, 
that he might see how little ground he had for find- 
ing fault with them. 

2. Take his eyes from the creeds of Christendom 
and set them on Christ. 

3. Having seen Christ he would soon forget the 
faults of others and look to himself. 



86 HINTS AND HELPS 

The opportunity soon presented itself. While 
seated in conversation with him one evening he 
made mention of some fact concerning Noah which 
I knew was not true to the Scripture statement. 
The family Bible was lying near and I handed it 
to him, saying, "Doctor, that statement is not 
quite correct ; find the passage, please, and see the 
diiference." He took the Bible and for at least fifteen 
minutes, turned the leaves while I carried on a conver- 
sation with his wife, who was a grand christian 
woman. Finally, the turning of the leaves stopped. 
I asked him if he had found the passage as he had 
stated it. He said he had not found it at all ; his eye- 
sight was not very good. I asked him to let me take 
the Bible, and said that I would find the passage, if 
he would tell me where to look. He said he did not 
know just where it was. I asked him to tell me in 
what book of the Bible to find it. He said after some 
hesitation that he did not know. I then asked him if 
it was in the Old or N^ew Testament. He said he 
thought it was in the New. I then told him Avhere it 
was, found it £Lnd read it to him, pointing out his mis- 
take. Then I told him frankly that I was ashamed of 
him. That he had been going all over the country 
talking against a Book of w^hich he knew absolutely 
nothing. I then asked him what he would think of 
me, if I should set myself up as a critic of medicine, 
when I knew not even the first principles. He said he 
should call me a fool. I then asked him if he had 
anything better than the Bible and Christianity to 
offer those from whom he would take them. He said 
no. Then I asked if he would not desist from talking 
against them until he had something better to put in 
their place, or until he had studied the Bible suffi- 
ciently to prove himself right or wrong. He made no 
reply, but I had gained my first point. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 87 

This may be an extreme case as to ignorance of the 
Bible, but by making the objector prove his statements 
every time by the Word yon will discover more ignor- 
ance than yon now realize can be the case, and you 
will put the skeptic to silence and shame. 

A few evenings after the above conversation had 
taken place, I had another opportunity for conversa- 
tion with the doctor. I asked him what the Bible said 
he must do to be saved. He said he did not know 
exactly, but he supposed for one thing one must believe 
that the Bible was inspired, and that he could not do 
that as there so many hard things in it he could not 
believe. I then asked him if the Bible said anywhere 
that, he must believe in the inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures, or that we all sinned in Adam, or that Noah 
and his family were saved in the ark, or that Joshua 
commanded the sun to stand still, etc., etc., that he 
might be saved. He said, he did not know as it did, 
but he supposed it did. I then turned and read the 
a answer of Paul and Silas to the jailor, "Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," and 
said, " Believe on Christ ; that is the only condition, 
doctor. " " But, ' ' said he, ' ' do you nor believe in the 
inspiration of the Scriptures?" " Most emphatically 
I do," I answered, "but this is not essential to my 
salvation according to the statement of the Scriptures 
themselves." I then showed him how Christ was the 
door through which we must pass, not only to our sal- 
vation, but also to a correct knowledge of the Bible 
(I Cor. 2:14), and how God was so good that if we 
could not believe at once in the divinity of Christ, we 
might believe on Him for the works' sake (John 14: 
11). "But," said the doctor, "why did not God open 
many doors instead of oneT' Said I, "If you were 
in a burning building and there was only one way out 



88 HINTS AND HELPS 

would you sit down and perish because you could not 
get out some other way T ' "Of course not, ' ' he 
replied. "Then why will you do it concerning your 
eternal salvation ? Doctor are you a sinner ?' ' " Yes : 
but how did I sin in Adam 1 If I did I can not be 
responsible. " " Doctor, are you a sinner ? " " Yes. ' ■ 
"Can you save yourself from your sins T' " I do not 
know as I can." "Are you not willing Christ should 
save you T ' " Why, yes, every one ought to be will- 
ing to be saved." "Will' you trust Him then, with 
all your doubts, as far as you know V His chin dro^D- 
ped upon his breast, the lips quivered, the tears gath- 
ered in his eyes, as he said scarcely above a whis^Der, 
' ' I will. ' ' It was nearly a year from that time before I 
could get him to confess Christ in public, but from that 
night, over hills and through valleys he preached 
Christ, and no one ever heard him say ought against the 
christian religion. The strange part of such a conver- 
sion is, that immediately at conversion skepticism 
almost always vanishes. 

I have placed this example here simply as an illus- 
tration of how to get at the honest skeptic. This does 
not meet all the difficulties ; their name is legion. But 
such cases are to be reached, and I want to make it 
emphatic. The chief objections of the honest skeptic 
are against the non-essentials of Bible teachings, and 
the misunderstood and complicated creeds. What I 
mean by non-essential Biblical doctrines, is not that 
they are not essential, they would not be in the Bible 
if they were not, but that, for conversion^ there is only 
one thing essential, namely, to believe on Christ. 
Lead the soul to Christ first : He will lead him on by 
opening his understanding, that he may understand 
the Scriptures. We are apt to forget that it is made 
most emphatic in the Bible that its teachings can not 
be made plain to the natural man, in their entirety. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 89 

The above illustration and statements may oi^en up 
the way for us to reach many of this class. 

Thoughts. 

Never give the skeptic a chance to think you do not 
believe the Bible entirely. 

Never get in the least impatient. 

If YOU can do no other wav get them to test the reli- 

«, I/O 

gion of Christ by ]3utting themselves in the Avay of it. 

Do not get discouraged if you do not succeed by 
once trying to reach the skeptic. 

"Haley's Discrepancies" is an invaluable work for 
those who want the seeming difficulties and contradic- 
tions of Scripture to vanish. Nelson on Infidelity is 
a grand book to read and to lend to the skeptic. 

Often this objection is made that the Word of God 
is too hard, frequently accompanied with the state- 
ment by the objector, that he will trust Nature instead. 
Find out how much he has studied the Bible, and then 
ask him how much difficulty he has met in the study of 
Nature. Such an objection is most absurd, when seen 
in its true light. It is far more easy to understand all 
of the Bible than a part of Nature. Who among spe- 
cialists, understand the ultimate truth of the sciences, 
—Geology, Biology, Astronom\^, Botany, Psychology, 
etc.?. These sciences are' all books of the one great 
book of Nature. It is decidedly simple for any one 
to claim, on the ground of its difficulties, that, instead 
of the Bible, he will trust Nature. 



90 HINTS AND HELPS 



CHAPTER XIX. 

EXCUSES AND DIFFICULTIES. 

There are numberless excuses for not coming to 
Christ now, which are given by the inquirer. A few 
of them we will notice. The most common ones are, 
" I do not feel like it, ' ' and ' ' If I start, I am afraid 
I shall not hold out." The lirst one has been suffi- 
ciently noticed elsewhere. The second one is singu- 
larly foolish. The idea that in the face of the awful 
consequences of sin, and the way of escape offered, 
any one should hesitate on the threshold of safety, is 
almost beyond comprehension. JSTo one would ever 
think of offering such an excuse when in any physical 
danger. The question would then be, not "will I 
ever be in the way of danger again," but "can I 
escape ? " We are not to keep Christ ; He is to keep 
us. The following texts of scripture are most appro- 
priate to such an objector : Deut. 33:27, "The eternal 
God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting 
arms." John 10:28, " And I will give to them eternal 
life ; and they shall never perish, neither shall any 
man pluck them out of my hand." We are not to 
stand in our own strength. With a new heart and a 
new life it does not seem so difficult to continue in the 
way. It seems hard as we look at it from the outside, 
but inside the fold it is easy. II Tim. 1:12, "Fori 
know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that 
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
him against that day." Also I Pet. 5:10, 11 ; Jude 
24, 25 ; Heb. 7:25 ; Eph.. 3:20, 21. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 9l 

Another excuse sometimes offered is, " If I am to be 
saved I suppose I shall be saved, and if I am to be lost 
I suppose I shall be lost." This objection is based 
upon a misunderstanding of certain Scripture state- 
ments, or a misapplication of a portion of the creed 
of certain denominations. I have sometimes wished 
I could take such objectors and throw them into a 
pond of sufficient size with the remark. " Now if you 
are g'oing to drown you will be drowned, and if you 
are going to be saved you will be saved " If they 
were saved it would be because they made some effort, 
and if they were drowned it would be because they 
put forth no effort. Some such illustration will be 
adequate to bring out the x^oint that if the objector be 
lost it will be because he puts forth no effort to accept 
Christ, and if he be saved it will be because such effort 
is put forth. The resj^onsibility rests with us. In 
every instance, with the exception of the one concern- 
ing our eternal welfare, common sense teaches human- 
ity that salvation from danger rests upon our using 
the means at hand. AVhy is it that when we come to 
things religious, common sense deserts us { 

" Not just now," is another excuse often heard. No 
one is sure of a moment of time, and the longer one 
waits the less is he apt to accept the Christ. At least 
one-half of all those who seek Christ, do so before the 
age of twenty. I have tested this with many audi- 
ences and I have found the following mathematical 
statement quite applicable here. The probability of a 
soul turning to Christ decreases as the square of the 
distance from youth to old age increases. The very 
process of delaying the acceptance of the Saviour har- 
dens the sinner in his ways. Analyze the above excuse 
and show the inquirer its true meaning. 

It is right to accept Christ. 

It is wrong not to accept Him. 



92 HINTS AND HELPS 

^'Not just now" means I am not just ready to do 
the right thing. I Avant a little more time in which to 
do wrong. Eccl. 12:1, "Reme^iber now thy Creator 
in the days of thy youth." 

Sometimes you will meet with an inquirer who 
thinks he has committed the unpardonable sin. 
Whatever may be the nature of that sin, you can 
assure the inquirer that no one who has a desire to be 
saved is among that number who can have no forgive- 
ness here nor hereafter. At John 6:44 we read, "No 
man can come to me, except the Father which hath 
sent me draw him." It is the office of the Holy Ghost 
to convince of sin, to bring about repentance and a de- 
sire for salvation ; and whenever and wherever that 
desire is found, it is a sure evidence that the Father is 
drawing that soul by the Holy Spirit, and God mocks no 
man bv creatino; desires for salvation He will not sat- 
isfy. Those whom God has forsaken will have no 
desire for salvation, at least no deep and earnest 
desire. Having pointed out this fact, turn to John 
6:87 and let them read, "Him that cometh to me I 
will in no wise cast out." Christ said that, and when- 
ever any one desires Him sufficiently to come to Him 
he will not be cast out. The above applies equally 
well to the backslider who is troubled with Heb. 6:4-6 
and other kindred passages. If such desire to return 
let them be assured they will be received. They have 
only to comply with the conditions, — Jer. 3:13; 29: 
11-13. 

Many times you will find those who seem to under- 
stand perfectly well the conditions of salvation, and 
as far as you can see have yielded themselves entirely 
to the Saviour, and still they find no joy in His ser- 
vice. You will find that there is some hindrance in 
the way. The joyful cry of the servant of Abraham 



^OB, THE INQUIRY ROOM. 9S 

who went in searcli of a wife for Isaac, on his arrival 
at the home of Rebekah (Gen. 24:27), teaches us a 
good lesson. He exclaimed, "I being in the ivay^ the 
Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren." 
If we expect the Lord to lead us we must put ourselves 
in the way. The way in which the Lord will lead us 
at and after conversion, is the way of obedience. In 
such cases as these the difficulty is doubtless along 
this line. Thev have not been obedient to the leadino- 
of the Spirit. The inquirer may have wronged a 
friend in some way. The Spirit has indicated clearly 
that they must go and make restitution, if within their 
power, and if not, to make suitable confession, and 
this they have not done. They need never expect the 
joy of the Lord will be theirs until this is done. There 
is great danger right here. One of t\\e saddest cases 
I have ever known was that of a business man who 
was led to x)ut himself in the way of salvation. If 
ever a man was sincere he certainly was. But the 
Spirit made known to him what he must do, if he 
became a Christian, by way of restitution. He 
rebelled against it and would make no such attempt. 
Very soon he was a worse sinner than ever and at 
length died a horrible death. I knew another man in 
the same town, who came face to face with the same 
duty, and who was obedient, though it cost him hun- 
dreds of dollars. The result of his obedience was, he 
became a man of power. The trouble may be a fail- 
ure to confess Christ. The promise is to those who 
are willing to confess Him. Luke 12:8, 9. Unless we 
are willing to make an open confession, we need not 
expect Him to confess us. I remember a man nearly 
fifty years of age who had been very profligate, — who 
was seeking the Saviour for two weeks and found no 
peace. Finally he arose in despair and stated to the 



94 Hm't^ AKJD HEL1*8 

young men present that lie wanted to warn them 
against doing as he had done. He had been very 
wicked and had resisted the Spirit's influence so long 
that there was no farther hope for him. He plead with 
them not to put off seeking Christ until it was too 
late. In that very act of confession joy came to him, 
and although seven years have passed by he is one of 
the most faithful and sweet-spirited Christians I know. 
These objections and difficulties might be multiplied 
many times, but I have mentioned the most common. 
Always bear in mind that you can have no set rules, 
which you can apply to the cases you mset. These 
suggestions are for help and not for rules. Put your 
whole faith in these passages, — John 14:26 ; 16:13 ; 
James 1:5, — ^when you go into the inquiry meeting, 
and although you have prepared yourself to the best 
of your ability in the knowledge of the Word and in 
method of work, look ever to that God who is equal 
to every emergency, and who is ever ready to help us. 



t^Oil THE INQUIRY ROOM. 95 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE RESULTS OF UNBELIEF. 

Very much has been said and written concerning 
the fact that salvation hinges on so simple a thing as 
believing, and the statement has often been made that 
God would be very unjust if he should reject any man 
for unbelief. 

Let us see first of all the disastrous results of unbe- 
lief in the church. At Matt. 13:58, we read, " And he 
did not many mighty works there because of their 
unbelief.'' At Matt. 17:19, 20, ''Then came the disci- 
ples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast 
him out ? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your 
unbelief.'' Unbelief in the two instances mentioned, 
prevented in the first case, Jesus from doing much 
among his own countrymen, and in the second case, 
his disci j)les from having power over the demon. 
Jesus has surely ascended now and is at the right hand 
of God ; — but the devils still are more powerful than 
many in the church, and for the same reason, unbelief. 

Faith removes mountains for the church ; unbelief 
builds them. What we need to-day is a faith that the 
eveiiiving and omnipresent Christ can and will cast 
the devils out of the hardest and most vile of sinners, 
even as He did centuries ago. The risen Lord lost 
none of His power in the resurrection. Unbelief 
makes the church of God powerless. Let us plead for 
that faith whose measure is the grain of mustard seed. 



D6 im^TS AND HELPS 

While unbelief prevents the church from exer- 
cising that power which is its heritage, and while 
it hinders the Master from working among and through 
those who have no faith, it is sure destruction to the 
unconverted. John 3:18, "But he that believeth not 
is condemned already, because he hath not believed in 
the name of the only begotten Son of Grod." He that 
does not believe on the name of the Son of God, is 
already under condemnation. Sin has rained him, 
but unbelief leads him unto judgment. Whosoever 
perishes will not perish because of sin, but because of 
unbelief. At John 3:36 we read, "And he that 
believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath 
of Grod abideth on him." This text speaks of the 
unbeliever as dead (" shall not see life "), and as under 
the wrath of God. To believe or disbelieve seems at 
first thought a very little thing, but under the blazing 
light of the truth there is a chasm between them, 
which can not be passed. They differ in their results 
as much as light and darkness differ. Everlasting life 
to the believer ; everlasting death to the disbeliever. 
No judgment to the believer ; condemnation already 
to the disbeliever. Death behind and eternal joy 
before the believer ; death upon the unbeliever and 
eternal night before. A resurrection of life to the 
believer ; a resurrection of damnation for the unbe- 
liever (John 2:29). Everlasting life to the believer ; 
everlasting punishment for the unbeliever, (Matt. 25: 
46.) Who, with the light of the Word shining upon 
them can say, ' ' It makes but little difference whet^ er 
we believe or not." In the eye^ of God it makes the 
difference between life and death ! Let us see if we 
can, how belief can save us and why unbelief works 
such terrible results. In the first place, belief is of no 
avail unless it brings about a line of action. Unbelief 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 97 

proves destructive only so far as it breeds inactivity. 
The two statements are no more true in religion than 
they are true in every thing else. And they are no 
more true in things secular, than in things religious. 
No man of any wisdom in the commercial world will 
engage in any business enterprise unless he believes 
that enterprise will prove successful. His unbelief in 
a business scheme w^hich has success in it, and his 
neighbors belief, will make the difference of fail- 
ure and success, between them. Four men were 
sleeping in as many different rooms in the third story 
of a certain hotel. A messenger came in the night to 
the door of each room, and cried out that the hotel 
was on fire, and that every avenue of escape was cut 
off except through a certain window^ from w^hich 
access to the ground and to safety was to be obtained 
by a rope. The first man rose immediately, ran to the 
window, swung out on the ro];^e and slid in safety to 
the ground. The second man rose from his bed and 
ran to the window^, but did not slide down on the rope 
and he perished wdth the building. The third man 
simply opened his eyes, and then shut them again, 
turned over and Avent to sleep and perished. The 
fourth man did not move at all. Why was there such 
a diversity of action and sucii difference in results I 
The first man heard the message ; he sprung from the 
bed because he believed ; he slid down on the rope 
because he trusted it, and yielded himself to it for sal- 
vation. The second man heard the message ; he 
believed it ; he ran to the window because he believed 
it ; but he did not dare trust the rojDe and he was lost. 
The third man heard the message ; he did not believe 
it ; he went to sleep and perished, because of his unbe- 
lief. The fourth man did not hear the message. Now 
let us transfer the case from things earthly to things 



98 HIl^TS AND HELPS 

heavenly. The message has come to the world that 
man is lost through sin ; that Grod through love for us 
has opened up a way of escape ; that He has sent His 
Son to lead us to safety. The only thing required of 
us is to believe the message and trust the messenger, 
who is our way of escape, /. e., we are to believe the 
message sufficiently to cause us to ilee to the means of 
escape and trust Him for deliverance. Whoever 
believes the message and trusts the means of escape 
will be saved. Whoever believes the message but will 
not trust the means of escape will be lost. Whoever 
does not believe the message will be lost. Whoever 
does not hear the message will be lost. As the men 
perished in the building through distrust, unbelief and 
heedlessness, so those who perish under the condem- 
nation of God will perish because they do not trust 
Christ, who is our way of escape ; or because they do 
not believe the message that they are in danger and 
need to be saved ; or because they will not listen to 
the message at all. Belief and unbelief differ in their 
results by celestial diameters in things pertaining to 
this life, and not less in those things which pertain to 
the life eternal. 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ sufficiently to trust 
Him to save you, or you must perish through unbelief. 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 99 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE JEALOUSY OF LOVE. 

There is one point wliicli needs si3ecial atten- 
tion, and that is the dark line which rnns through 
the experience of man, and which, according to the 
Word, if he continue in his sins, does not stop with 
tliis life but continues through eternity. How is this 
consistent with a God of love i There are many who 
claim to reject the Bible because it teaches that there 
is, and that there is to be, such a dark line. They say 
that they reject the Bible and accept the God of 
nature as their o-nide. In such cases vou have onlvto 
point to the fact, too plain to be denied, that that dark 
line is found in nature, in the experience of man, just 
the same as it is in the Bible. The Bible is a faithful 
representation of the experiences of certain individuals. 
The same exj^eriences have taken place and are taking- 
place outside the realm of Bible history, and under 
the direction of the God of nature. It is exceedingiv 
foolish to reject the Bible, and flee to nature for 
safety because of this dark line. The only alternative 
for one who rejects the Bible, is to go clear over to 
atheism and denv the existence of anv intellio"ent 
power whatsoever ; and even then it will not change 
the fact of such an experience one iota. Take the one 
fact of sin, which is the father of all evils ; not the 
23robleni of sin, which is a vain speculation outside of 
the Scripture statement ; but the fact of sin. It will 



loo Ull^TS AT^D HELPS 

make no dift'erence with the facts, whether we deny 
the Bible on the ground of its statements concerning 
sin and the results of sin, or whether we believe it. 
Sin is a universal fact, as far as this world is con- 
cerned, and the results of sin, with the one exception 
of the duration of these results, are more plainly seen 
outside of the Bible than in it. To deny this is to 
deny our very experiences. Let us notice in a general 
way some of the Scripture statements concerning this 
dark line. We read of the destruction of the earth's 
population, with the exception of eight persons ; of 
the destruction of an entire nation by the edge of the 
sword ; of the visitation of plague, of pestilence, and 
of famine ; of the destruction of Jerusalem and the 
scattering of a nation to the four corners of the earth ; 
and, finally, that the persistently wicked are to go 
away into everlasting punishment. If God is a God 
of love, why is all this ^i But do not lose sight of this 
one fact, reject the Bible, and all these facts which I 
have enumerated remain facts just the same, unless it 
be the one statement concerning the flood, and that is 
found in the traditions of every nation on both conti- 
nents. IN'ations have been wholly extinguished by 
barbarous tribes ; plagues, pestilence, famine, and 
drought, have swept ofi" thousands upon thousands ; 
Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, many thou- 
sands of the Jews were crucified, and the remnant 
scattered to the four corners of the earth ; besides 
every life is a book which contains a record of suffer- 
ing, which, if written out on parchment, the world 
could not contain. The God of nature and the 
God of the Bible, who to every believer of the 
Word are one and the same, have made the same foot- 
prints along the track of history. Write the history of 
the suffering by accident, by pestilence, and war, which 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 101 

has occuiTed in the past twenty-five years in these 
United States alone, and put before tlie statement 
"God brought it to pass because of sin," and you will 
have a record more fearful than that of the Old Testa- 
ment. Turn which way you will, the dark line is 
plaiuly visible. Fly from the Bible because of its 
dark line, to nature, and you will find the dark line 
there also. But nature offers no explanation, she gives 
no refuge ; but, while she exhibits this dark line, the 
Bible puts upon it the silver lining of explanation and 
causes it to vanish, if we will, in the sunlight of God's 
love. There are two texts of Scripture which I desire 
to put side by side, Ex. 20:5, " For I the Lord thy God 
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
upon the children unto the third and fourth genera- 
tion of them that hate me," and John 3:16, " For God 
so loved the Avorld, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that Avhosoever belie veth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life.'' These two j^assages from 
Scripture both tell of the love of God, though from a 
different standpoint. The latter from the standx^oint 
of entering into the sufferings of the world that He 
might redeem it from its sins, and therefore from its 
sufferings ; the former from the standpoint of x^rotect- 
ing the object entrusting itself to His love and care. 
Love manifests itself not only in suffering to the 
utmost to save, but also in protecting the object saved. 
Jealousy at its best is love protecting the object loved ; 
that is Avhat it is at the throne of God, and along this 
line is found at least one of the explanations for the 
dark line in human exj)erience, x)ast, jjresent, and 
future. Let us illustrate this jDoint. 

A certain widowed mother had five sons. The two 
older sons had become exceedingly^ wicked, the others 
were pure and innocent. The mother's love went out 



102 HINTS AND HELPS 

doubly strong to the wayward ones. By manifesta- 
tions of her love she succeeded in winning back to 
purity of life one of her boys, but the oldest boy 
became more wicked than ever. He not only did more 
wickedly on his own part, but he tried in every way 
to lead the redeemed boy back into the way of sin, and 
also to contaminate the three innocent boys. The 
mother expostulated and pleaded with him in vain. 
Finally she said, "John, I have done all I can to save 
you. I love you from the depths of a mother's heart ; 
but now if you will not reform and do rightlj^ you 
must never cross my threshold again. Your sinful 
ways will contaminate your brothers, and I can not see 
them led astray. Until you are ready to live as you 
ought you must go." Did that mother do rightly^ 
Did she cease to love the wayward boy because she 
drove him from her home to save the other boys i Ask 
the gray hairs which crept prematurely into her hair. 
Ask the deep lines of suffering plowed in that patient 
face. Ask the pillow wet nightly with her tears. Ask 
the broken heart, the languid step, the trembling 
hands. The mother suffers more than the wayward 
son because of that son's sins. It is one of the awful 
facts of sin that the innocent in love suffers more than 
the guilty one loved. This fact made the bloody sweat 
in the garden of Gethsemane possible while the disci- 
ples slept. It made the atonement possible, and the 
death on the cross amid the jeers of the soldiers. To 
banish the loved cost more pain on the part of the lov- 
ing than on the part of the loved one banished. That 
mother banished the guilty son to protect the innocent 
children. She suffered to save the boys, she suffered 
in banishing the boy. 

So this dark line runs through the history of man. 
It is God's voice warning, entreating, inviting, pro- 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 103 

tecting the objects, loved. God loves the world, not 
part of the world, but the world. He gave of Himself 
to the uttermost to save the world from its sins because 
He could not make tlie world happy in its sins. He 
suffers to the uttermost in banishing those who will 
not come to Him that they may have life. Hear the 
wail of anguish which burst from the lips of the 
Christ, ''O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the 
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee ; 
how often w^ould I have gathered thy children together, 
as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and 
3 e would not I " (Luke 13:34.) 

Over Heaven's gate the jealousy of the love of God 
has written, ' ' And there shall in no wise enter into it 
any thing that detileth, neither Avhatsoever worketh 
abomination, or maketh a lie," (Rev. 21:27). 

For two reasons that is written there : 

1. God can not make the impure of heart hai3py, 
even though the}^ be in Heaven. 

2. He must protect from sin those who have accepted 
His love, and have yielded themselves to Him, that 
they might, through regeneration and sanctihcation of 
the Sj)irit, become jnire in heart. 

These two facts have caused all the suffering of the 
Son of man. It brought Him from the throne to the 
manger, and caused Him infinite sorrow. 

It is not hatred, but love, such as we see at its best 
on earth, that banishes the persistently sinful from 
Heaven, love protecting those objects loved, who have 
accepted heavenly love and have washed their robes 
and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 



104 HII^TS AND HELPS 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE EVEELASTIIJ^G WORD. 

li^ Luke 21:33, we read the Master's promise con- 
cerning His Word : ' ' Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass away." 

Having finished our course of Bible study, it is my 
purpose to present certain reasons outside of the Word 
which seem to substantiate the above text. Not that 
the text needs such proof, biit it may furnish us 
encouragement to glance at those facts outside oi* the 
statements of Scripture which demonstrate its ever- 
lasting character. 

1. The Word of God is everlasting because it has 
stood centuries of the severest of tests, and has come 
through them all unharmed. If I could show you a 
fortress which had stood for nineteen centuries under 
the fiercest attack of every manner of weapon and of 
every method of warfare which mind of man or devil 
could'conceive, and which still stood without a mar up- 
on its surface or a crack in its foundation, you would at 
least say that it bade fair to stand the test of centuries 
to come. Here is a fortress which has stood such a 
test. Each and all the forces of man or demon have 
made no impression upon it. It stands ; it will stand ! 
Let shell screach and cannon roar ; let earthquakes 
shake and lightning smite, God's Word is everlasting. 

The answer to infidelity is the present popularity of 
the Word to-day. ]N"o age has seen it greater. The 



FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM. 105 

Bible is the text book of 300,000,000 souls, and until 
infidelity can write a better book, its popularity will 
increase. 

2. The Word of God is everlasting simply as a clas- 
sic. There is but little great classic literature. There 
are but few productions which have stood the test of 
centuries. Such are the following : Homer, Plato's 
"Laws" and "Republic," the writings of Aristotle, 
Yirgil, Cicero, Dante, Schiller, Goethe, Kant, Bacon, 
Chaucer, SjDenser, Shakespeare, Wordsworth and 
Milton. When I have mentioned these, according to 
the best judges of literature, I have mentioned the 
world's best. But the catalogue is not yet complete. 
According to the same judges I must also mention the 
five books of Moses, the Psalms of David, the Prox)hecy 
of Isaiah, the Gospel of St. John and the Writings of 
St. Paul. These in the judgment of scholars, judged 
purely on their literary merits, are to be j)laced, not 
on the same level with the other classic authors named, 
but above them. I am amused when I hear some infi- 
del saying, "the Bible will some day be forgotten." 
As a classic it is everlasting, and preserved as a clas- 
sic, its doctrines will he preserved forever. 

3. It is everlasting because it has had, and has 
to-day, the approval and endorsement of the. very best 
minds, ^Clement, Origen, Jerome, Chrysostom, Huss, 
Luther, Calvin, Milton, Isaac Newton, Franklin, Ed- 
wards, McCosh, — but it is useless to attempt to men- 
tion the thousands of illustrious men, the stamp of 
whose approval is upon the Book. It is sufficient to 
say that the eminent men of today above all other 
days, are most emphatic in their adherence to it. 
Thomas Carlisle pronounced the Book of Job "the 
sublimest poem of all the ages." Guizot declared his 
firm belief in the history of the Old Testament, as well 



106 HINTS AND HELPS 

as the evangelical Christianity of the JN^ew Testament. 
Locke died listening to the music of the Psalms he 
loved. Ruskin and Webster attributed their literary 
merits to it. Emerson who wrote, 

" Out of the heart of nature rolled 
The burden of the Bible, old." 

said the Bible Avas the best read book in his house. 
Wendell Phillips, who asked no man's praise, and 
who never said anything because others liked or dis- 
liked it, said, ' ' The Bible is a book of facts as well 
authenticated as any heathen history ; a book of mir- 
acles incontestably avouched ; a book of prophecy 
conhrmed by past as Avell as pir^sent fulfillment ; a 
book of poetry pure and natural and elevated even to 
inspiration ; a book of morals such as human wisdom 
never framed for the perfection of human haj)piness." 
But enough has been said to confirm the point stated. 
The Word of God is everlasting because it meets the 
approval and lias the endorsement of the best minds. 

4. The Word of God is everlasting because the 
investigations of science are showing that it is in har- 
mony with the nature of things. I will not stoj) to 
specify, but refer to such eminent authorities as Daw- 
son and Dana and Young and Beale for confirmation, 
only stating that at least eighty per cent of the scien- 
tists of today are firm believers in the Bible, which 
would not be the case if their study of nature dis- 
proved its statements. 

One thing further is worthy of mention in this con- 
nection. While the Bible is not a text book for sci- 
ence, while it does not teach that the earth is a sphe- 
roid, and that it travels round the sun, it is marvelous, 
that it does not contain any of the false ideas concern- 
ing the earth and the heavenly systems, etc., etc., 
though composed during that period when the world 



FOR THE IT^QUIRY ROOM. 107 

lield most preiDosterons ideas concerning tliem. It 
would take as much inspiration to steer clear of the 
mistakes of mankind in this direction, as it wonld to 
state the whole truth. The Word is everlasting, 
because its teachings are in harmony with nature when 
it speaks, and though it is often silent on those points 
which man can discover by his own investigation, it 
does not contradict nature. 

5. The AVord is everlasting because it is more pojju- 
ular today than ever. Yoltaire prophesied its entire 
overthrow long ere this. But more Bibles are printed 
and read today than ever. Its popularity has grown 
with the centuries. People by the millions are gath- 
ered together every week to study it. The more they 
study it the more they love it. Those with whom the 
Bible is not popular, never study it. 

6. The Word is everlasting because it touches the 
deepest needs of the human heart. As long as there 
is a burdened heart, the "come" of Jesus will have 
an audience. As long as there are friends and loved 
ones leaving us in death, the twenty third Psalm and 
the fourteenth chapter of St. John will be remem- 
bered. As long as there is a sinner anxious to be freed 
from sin, the Son of man who came to seek and to 
save the lost will be loved and followed. 

7. The Word of God is everlasting because Jesus 
said it. We can lay aside all other facts and trust the 
testimony. We have spoken about man endorsing the 
Word. It needs no such endorsement. It carries in 
itself the reason for its being given to man, and its own 
power for perpetuating it. Listen to the words of 
God, troubled soul ! Harken to His promises and find 
rest of mind and peace of soul, " O that thou hadst 
barkened to my commandments ! then had thy peace 
been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of 



108 HINTS AND HELPS 

the sea." Eternity looks down upon ns through the 
pages of the Word. Hundreds of generations have 
read its promises, have obeyed its commandments and 
have believed its prophecies. Centuries ago the words 
of the law, which we now hear, Moses recited to the 
wandering Israelites in the desert. Centuries ago the 
curses and blessings we now read, were uttered from 
Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. For centuries, humanity 
burdened with sin, has sung the Psalms of David, 
read and loved the Sermon on the Mount, studied the 
life of the Great Master. And "the oaks of the moun- 
tains shall fall, the mountains themselves decay with 
years," but the last head of the last man will be pil- 
lowed upon it ; and though the heavens are rolled 
together as a scroll, and the earth melt with fervent 
heat, through the cycles of a never ending eternity, 
immortal spirits who have loved the Bible here will 
love it there. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
the Word of God shall endure forever. 



THE END. 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Introduction, 3 

CHAPTER I. 
The Book, 7 

CHAPTER II. 
Salvation, .11 

CHAPTER III. 
Faith, . . 16 

CHAPTER IV. 
Grace, 21 

CHAPTER V. 
Repentance, 25 

CHAPTER VI. 
Justification, 29 

CHAPTER VII. 
Regeneration, 33 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Sanctification, 38 

CHAPTER IX. 
Prayer, 43 

CHAPTER X. 
Assurance, 48 



CHAPTER XI. 
Consecration, 53 

CHAPTER XII. 
Witnessing for Christ, 57 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Enduement of Power, 61 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Thoughts on Inquiry Work, 65 

CHAPTER XV. 
Doubting Christians and Backsliders, . . . . ' . . . . 69 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Those Not Thoroughly Convinced, 74 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Those Fully Convinced, 78 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Honest Skeptic, 83 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Excuses and Difficulties, 90 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Results of Unbelief, 95 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The Jealousy of Love, 99 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Everlasting Word, . 104 



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